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

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{{FAformat
|Title= Norman State Hospital
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|Title= Metropolitan State Hospital
|Image= OKnorman.png
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|Image= Mapc039.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= The first structure on the hospital site actually was a school for women opened in the late 1800s. High Gate Academy couldn't compete with the nearby University of Oklahoma, and in 1895 it was sold to the Oklahoma Sanitarium Co. Mental patients who until that time had been sent by train to a facility in Illinois could now be treated at the Norman institution “for violent insane,” as a description on the facility's front gate stated.
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|Body= It became apparent that while the mental health system as a whole was overcrowded, the most urgent need was in the metropolitan area. Intense debate over possible solutions occurred in 1908-1926. The Trustees of the newly acquired Boston State Hospital advocated for expansion of thier facility to a 5,000 patient capacity, but were unable to convince the State Board of Insanity of the merits of that proposal. The need for a second metropolitan area hospital was identified as early as 1908.
  
In 1899, sanitarium officials hired David W. Griffin, a psychiatrist from North Carolina. “He saw that the word ‘insane' was on the gates, and he personally chiseled that word off,” Crosby said.
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Introduced to the state legislature in 1912, the board authorized spending in January of 1915. A site that was in close proximity to the Walter E. Fernald State School was immediately acquired. Plans were prepared for a 1,900 patient facility to be built on the cottage/colony plan. No action was taken for several years due to the Trustees of Boston State Hospital continue to argue for their own expansion and the first World War diverted state attention and funds.
  
Griffin would become superintendent in 1902, a position he would hold until 1950. The sanitarium was sold to the fledgling state of Oklahoma, and in 1915, the legislative “Lunacy Bill” created several state asylums, including facilities at Fort Supply, Vinita and Norman. The Norman site became known as Central State Hospital, although numerous accounts still referred to it as “Central State Hospital for the insane.”
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Finally, in 1927, the State legislature responded by appropriating $1,500,000 for preparation of the Waltham site. The ground breaking ceremony took place on December 27, 1927 at the Administration Building. Cornerstone laying ceremonies were held on October 17, 1928. Construction costs were kept down by the use of the plain red brick buildings of early American colonial type. Trim elements, including pedimented pavilions and quoins, were deleted from the ward buildings. As the first campus developed in the automobile age, Met State did not require immediate adjacency to railroad facilities. As the most recent of the State's institutional treatment centers for the insane Metropolitan State Hospital represented the third and final stage in the evolving form of hospitals for the mentally ill. Like its predecessors, the Kirkbride and cottage/colony, it responded to increases in patient populations within the constraints of a publicly funded budget which both often failed.  [[Metropolitan State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
Patient populations at the Norman hospital grew, reaching 3,000 in the 1950s. At times, conditions reported there, as at many similar institutions of the era, were grim, with overcrowding, inadequate heating and cooling and use of electric and insulin shock therapy, sterilizations, lobotomies and other approaches now considered inhumane. Patients might remain there for months or years.  [[Norman State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 03:42, 4 January 2016

Featured Article Of The Week

Metropolitan State Hospital


Mapc039.jpg

It became apparent that while the mental health system as a whole was overcrowded, the most urgent need was in the metropolitan area. Intense debate over possible solutions occurred in 1908-1926. The Trustees of the newly acquired Boston State Hospital advocated for expansion of thier facility to a 5,000 patient capacity, but were unable to convince the State Board of Insanity of the merits of that proposal. The need for a second metropolitan area hospital was identified as early as 1908.

Introduced to the state legislature in 1912, the board authorized spending in January of 1915. A site that was in close proximity to the Walter E. Fernald State School was immediately acquired. Plans were prepared for a 1,900 patient facility to be built on the cottage/colony plan. No action was taken for several years due to the Trustees of Boston State Hospital continue to argue for their own expansion and the first World War diverted state attention and funds.

Finally, in 1927, the State legislature responded by appropriating $1,500,000 for preparation of the Waltham site. The ground breaking ceremony took place on December 27, 1927 at the Administration Building. Cornerstone laying ceremonies were held on October 17, 1928. Construction costs were kept down by the use of the plain red brick buildings of early American colonial type. Trim elements, including pedimented pavilions and quoins, were deleted from the ward buildings. As the first campus developed in the automobile age, Met State did not require immediate adjacency to railroad facilities. As the most recent of the State's institutional treatment centers for the insane Metropolitan State Hospital represented the third and final stage in the evolving form of hospitals for the mentally ill. Like its predecessors, the Kirkbride and cottage/colony, it responded to increases in patient populations within the constraints of a publicly funded budget which both often failed. Click here for more...