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

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|Title= St. Louis State Hospital
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|Title= Callan Park Hospital for the Insane
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|Body= On April 23, 1869 outside the City of St. Louis, "St. Louis County Lunatic Asylum" opened its doors to 150 mentally ill people on what is now 53 acres in southwest St. Louis. Designed and built by architect William Rumbold, it is the second governmental facility in the state to serve this population. Rumbold also designed the dome on the Old Courthouse, site of the famous Dred Scott trials and now part of the Gateway Arch National Park. (It is believed he went on to consult on the design of the dome on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.) The building's bricks were made on site and cost overruns made it the most expensive facility of its kind west of the Mississippi, $750,000 in a time when annual income was $150-$200.
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|Body= The Colonial Government bought the whole 104.5 acres as a site for a new lunatic asylum to be designed according to the enlightened views of the American Dr Thomas Kirkbride. Colonial Architect James Barnett worked in collaboration with Inspector of the Insane Dr Frederick Norton Manning to produce a group of some twenty neo-classical buildings, completed in 1885 and subsequently named the Kirkbride Block, offering progressive patient care.
  
In 1876 the City of St. Louis separates from St. Louis County, so the facility name changes to "The St. Louis City Insane Asylum". Thirty-five years later, it was renamed "City Sanitarium". Regarded as a showpiece, a model of the western world's ability to take care of its more vulnerable, the Dome Building became a "must see" for foreign dignitaries and tourists. The elevation of its city view made it the premier lookout point prior to the 630 ft. Gateway Arch. Graffiti inside the dome attests to its many visitors. Periodically, civic and social leaders dressed up to dance with patients in the ballroom below the dome. Later, debutante parties were common in the Dome Building lobby.
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The asylum was the 'institutional linchpin' of moral therapy and the appropriate design of the building was crucial to the success of the therapy. [18] Pleasant surroundings and well designed, comfortable, small-scale buildings were imperative. These aims were embodied in a pavilion-type layout, where small buildings had all-weather connections and the spaces in between were landscaped as courtyards for outdoor activities. Manning chose Chartham Down because it was a pavilion-type layout in which separate ward blocks enclosed airing courts. Ultimately, the combination of Manning's understanding of moral therapy, Barnet's architecture, and the outstanding site at Callan Park, produced a design of a higher standard than Chartham.
  
By 1907, construction on wings and annexes (known as buildings B, C, D, E, G, H, I, J, and separate K building) to the original building commences to accommodate the 2000 patients and 300 staff members. More and more people are admitted to the hospital because roads and transportation improved. The next overflow crisis occurred in the early 1920s which precipitated a separate building being erected for attendants' quarters. This freed space in the hospital into which patients could be moved. By 1940, the hospital had 3,844 patients. [[St. Louis State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Together they designed five male and five female wards, to accommodate approximately 600 patients. The wards were symmetrically arranged about the main cross axis on which the official buildings were planned. Eight of the lofty, airy wards, had large airing courts – some with a view to the Blue Mountains. The other two had high retaining walls caused by the slope of the land. A remarkable continuous covered veranda linked the buildings. [[Callan Park Hospital for the Insane|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:03, 23 February 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Callan Park Hospital for the Insane


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The Colonial Government bought the whole 104.5 acres as a site for a new lunatic asylum to be designed according to the enlightened views of the American Dr Thomas Kirkbride. Colonial Architect James Barnett worked in collaboration with Inspector of the Insane Dr Frederick Norton Manning to produce a group of some twenty neo-classical buildings, completed in 1885 and subsequently named the Kirkbride Block, offering progressive patient care.

The asylum was the 'institutional linchpin' of moral therapy and the appropriate design of the building was crucial to the success of the therapy. [18] Pleasant surroundings and well designed, comfortable, small-scale buildings were imperative. These aims were embodied in a pavilion-type layout, where small buildings had all-weather connections and the spaces in between were landscaped as courtyards for outdoor activities. Manning chose Chartham Down because it was a pavilion-type layout in which separate ward blocks enclosed airing courts. Ultimately, the combination of Manning's understanding of moral therapy, Barnet's architecture, and the outstanding site at Callan Park, produced a design of a higher standard than Chartham.

Together they designed five male and five female wards, to accommodate approximately 600 patients. The wards were symmetrically arranged about the main cross axis on which the official buildings were planned. Eight of the lofty, airy wards, had large airing courts – some with a view to the Blue Mountains. The other two had high retaining walls caused by the slope of the land. A remarkable continuous covered veranda linked the buildings. Click here for more...