Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Spring Grove State Hospital
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|Title= Central Lunatic Asylum
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|Image= petersburg.png
 
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|Body= Spring Grove Hospital Center was founded in 1797 and is the second oldest psychiatric hospital in the United States (The oldest being Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia, which was founded in 1773).
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|Body= The origin of Central State Hospital dates back to the close of the Civil War when in April 1865, Congress created the Freedman's Bureau to establish hospitals, schools and other facilities for the African-American population.
  
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The "Old Main" was the original building at the Spring Grove site of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane. Although construction was started in 1853, the Main Building was not substantially completed and ready for full occupancy until 1872. Work on the building stopped in 1862 and was not resumed until 1868. However, enough of the north wing was completed by the start of the Civil War (1861) to allow for that part of the building to serve as a military hospital during the War. The first psychiatric patients were transferred from the Baltimore City location of the Maryland Hospital to the newly completed facility at Spring Grove on October 7, 1872.
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In December 1869, a former Confederate Facility, known as Howard's Grove Hospital, was designated as a mental health hospital for African-Americans. The name was later changed to Central Lunatic Asylum. In June 1870, the General Assembly passed an act incorporating the Central Lunatic Asylum as an organized state institution. When the Commonwealth of Virginia assumed ownership, there were "123 insane persons and 100 paupers, not insane" housed at the asylum.
  
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The Main Building's original capacity was 325 patients, and its cost, including landscaping and several associated outbuildings, was approximately $760,000. From the beginning, the Main Building had running water, flush toilets, gas lighting and forced air central heating. Hot water for a heat exchanger was piped to the building's basement from a nearby Boiler House. Electric lights and a telephone system were added in the 1890s. (Combination gas and electric chandeliers may be seen in some pictures from the turn of the 19th Century.) The Main Building was designed in accordance with the Kirkbride Plan, which called for a monumental center section, and two large wings — one for male patients and one for females patients. The north wing was called the "Male Department," and the south wing was called the "Female Department." The individual units on each wing were arranged in a progressive set-back configuration, a system that allowed for the classification of patients by level of functioning, and kept the various levels of care ("Violent Female," "General Female," "Convalescent Female," "Violent Male," "General Male" and "Convalescent Male" ) fairly separate from each other.  [[Spring Grove State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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In 1882, the Mayfield Farm in Dinwiddie County was purchased by the City of Petersburg for $15,000 and presented to the Commonwealth for the development of a new mental health hospital. The first patients (a total of 373) were transferred to the present site of the hospital on March 22, 1885. Ten years later, the population had doubled and by the end of 1950, there were 4,043 inpatients with 691 on parole or escape status.
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Within a few years, the average inpatient population had reached 4,800 and overcrowding in the old unsafe ward buildings had become a major problem.
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During the 1950's, a Maximum Security Forensic Unit was built for the evaluation and treatment of patients referred by the courts. A geriatric treatment center was also erected for the care of the chronically ill and bedridden. This was the first in a series of five treatment buildings constructed specifically for geriatric services. With the improvement in community services, the Barrow Geriatric Center was closed in the summer of 1985.  [[Central Lunatic Asylum|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:55, 26 May 2014

Featured Article Of The Week

Central Lunatic Asylum


petersburg.png

The origin of Central State Hospital dates back to the close of the Civil War when in April 1865, Congress created the Freedman's Bureau to establish hospitals, schools and other facilities for the African-American population.

In December 1869, a former Confederate Facility, known as Howard's Grove Hospital, was designated as a mental health hospital for African-Americans. The name was later changed to Central Lunatic Asylum. In June 1870, the General Assembly passed an act incorporating the Central Lunatic Asylum as an organized state institution. When the Commonwealth of Virginia assumed ownership, there were "123 insane persons and 100 paupers, not insane" housed at the asylum.

In 1882, the Mayfield Farm in Dinwiddie County was purchased by the City of Petersburg for $15,000 and presented to the Commonwealth for the development of a new mental health hospital. The first patients (a total of 373) were transferred to the present site of the hospital on March 22, 1885. Ten years later, the population had doubled and by the end of 1950, there were 4,043 inpatients with 691 on parole or escape status.

Within a few years, the average inpatient population had reached 4,800 and overcrowding in the old unsafe ward buildings had become a major problem.

During the 1950's, a Maximum Security Forensic Unit was built for the evaluation and treatment of patients referred by the courts. A geriatric treatment center was also erected for the care of the chronically ill and bedridden. This was the first in a series of five treatment buildings constructed specifically for geriatric services. With the improvement in community services, the Barrow Geriatric Center was closed in the summer of 1985. Click here for more...

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