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

From Asylum Projects
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{FAformat
 
{{FAformat
|Title= Boston State Hospital
+
|Title= Nevada State Asylum
|Image= BostonSH.png
+
|Image= Nevada_State_Hospital.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= The Boston State Hospital – originally called the Boston Lunatic Asylum – was founded in South Boston in 1839. By the 1880s, new ideas about the care of the mentally ill emphasized the importance of fresh air, hard work, and separation from the adverse influences (both social and environmental) of city life, an approach that was referred to as “moral treatment.” Thus, when the time came to move out of the old and overcrowded facilities in South Boston, the Asylum’s leaders looked to West Roxbury – at that time a semi-rural area that had only recently been incorporated into the city of Boston – as an appropriate setting for a new hospital.
+
|Body= The Nevada Insane Asylum opened its doors to 1481 Nevada citizens on July 1, 1882. The "poor unfortunates" arrived by train at 4:30 AM2 from Stockton, California. Prior to their arrival at Reno, they were housed and cared for by Doctors Langdon and Clark at their Woodbridge asylum near Stockton. The patients were welcomed back to Nevada to a brand new facility, the pride of the State.
  
Beginning in 1884, some Asylum residents were moved to the former almshouse at Austin Farm, just across Morton Street from the present Boston Nature Center, where the Harvard Commons development stands today. In 1892, looking for more room for both buildings and farmland, the City purchased the 35-acre Pierce Farm, along Walk Hill and Canterbury Streets – part of which land is now the western end of the BNC. A few years later, the City bought another parcel of land, adjoining Pierce Farm and Canterbury Street, which now includes much of the Clark Cooper Community Gardens and other areas in the central part of the BNC.
+
From the beginning, due to its great distance from Reno (three miles out of town and no Sparks until 1905) and in keeping with the times, the "Asylum" was a working farm and remained so through the 1960s. They grew alfalfa, fruit trees and vegetables, raised cattle, pigs, and chickens, and had a dairy. Irrigation was provided via ditches from the Truckee River and domestic water was pumped to a water tower on the grounds (see the wooden water tank on above roof in the photo above). You can still find remnants of the irrigation ditches if you walk the grounds. Later on, the river powered a generator for electricity for the site. Most of the product from the farm operation was used to feed the patients and staff, with occasional surplus being sold. Since the facility was principally self-sufficient, there were numerous support buildings as well, including barns, maintenance shops, a boiler plant, laundry, a morgue, and, of course, a cemetery.
  
It was soon decided that Austin Farm would house women, while Pierce Farm became the “Department for Men” of the recently renamed Boston Insane Hospital. The new buildings at Pierce Farm, designed by city architect Edmund March Wheelwright, opened in 1895, and a few additional farm buildings were added over the following years.  [[Boston State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
+
Who were the people at the Asylum in the early days? First of all, there were the patients (called inmates at the time) who came from all walks of life. The majority of the male population were farmers, laborers, and miners (makes sense) and the females were mostly housewives. Patients who were able, were given the opportunity to participate in the chores that kept the place running.  [[Nevada State Asylum|Click here for more...]]
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 03:06, 1 August 2016

Featured Article Of The Week

Nevada State Asylum


Nevada State Hospital.jpg

The Nevada Insane Asylum opened its doors to 1481 Nevada citizens on July 1, 1882. The "poor unfortunates" arrived by train at 4:30 AM2 from Stockton, California. Prior to their arrival at Reno, they were housed and cared for by Doctors Langdon and Clark at their Woodbridge asylum near Stockton. The patients were welcomed back to Nevada to a brand new facility, the pride of the State.

From the beginning, due to its great distance from Reno (three miles out of town and no Sparks until 1905) and in keeping with the times, the "Asylum" was a working farm and remained so through the 1960s. They grew alfalfa, fruit trees and vegetables, raised cattle, pigs, and chickens, and had a dairy. Irrigation was provided via ditches from the Truckee River and domestic water was pumped to a water tower on the grounds (see the wooden water tank on above roof in the photo above). You can still find remnants of the irrigation ditches if you walk the grounds. Later on, the river powered a generator for electricity for the site. Most of the product from the farm operation was used to feed the patients and staff, with occasional surplus being sold. Since the facility was principally self-sufficient, there were numerous support buildings as well, including barns, maintenance shops, a boiler plant, laundry, a morgue, and, of course, a cemetery.

Who were the people at the Asylum in the early days? First of all, there were the patients (called inmates at the time) who came from all walks of life. The majority of the male population were farmers, laborers, and miners (makes sense) and the females were mostly housewives. Patients who were able, were given the opportunity to participate in the chores that kept the place running. Click here for more...