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

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|Title= Eloise Asylum
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|Title= Cleveland State Hospital
|Image= Eloise13.png
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|Image= Cleveland03.jpg
 
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|Body= In 1839, only two years after Michigan had joined the Union, Wayne County paid $800 to buy a 160-acre farm in Nankin Township (now Westland). The purchase included a log cabin known as the Black Horse Tavern. The County erected an addition to the tavern building and used it to house 35 needy people, a keeper and his wife. They called it the Wayne County Poorhouse. Its first residents were transferred from another poorhouse at Gratiot and Mt. Elliott in Detroit . Many refused to move, claiming the new poorhouse was "too far out in the wilderness." And they were right -- at that time the corner of Michigan and Merriman was nearly two days by stage coach from Detroit.
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|Body= The Cleveland State Hospital was a state-supported psychiatric facility for long-term care. Originally known as the Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, it was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio during the 1850s. It was later known as Newburgh State Hospital. The Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum was authorized by an act of the Ohio legislature. The main building, containing 100 beds, was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh donated by the family of James A. Garfield, later U.S. president. Previously, many of those considered insane had been kept in jails or almshouses. The asylum was to provide a quiet place outside the city where healthy, moral living habits could be learned (although management of disturbed patients then also included seclusion, cuffs, straps, strait-jackets, and cribs). The hospital was run by a 5-member Board of Trustees appointed by the governor, with Dr. Horace Ackley the first chair and superintendent. In its first 100 years, the hospital had 21 different superintendents; the last, Dr. William Grover, served for 18 years.
  
But that was what the county officials had in mind. They wanted somewhere well out of sight to send what they saw as society's dregs -- the vagrants, vagabonds, drunkards, pilferers and brawlers. With such a broad charter, it wasn't long before the feeble-minded and the insane were being housed there. Records show that a Biddy Hughes was Eloise's first official mental patient, committed by her family in 1841. She was in her mid-30s when admitted and was kept there until her death 58 years later.
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In its early years, the hospital had a homelike atmosphere; patients and staff usually dined together. An "open" facility, most patients were free to make use of the grounds. After a fire in 1872, a more substantial structure was built, with capacity for 650 patients. But by 1874 there were reports of overcrowding, a persistent problem. By 1900 the hospital had cared for over 10,000 patients. At this time it began to treat mainly poorer patients, including an increasing number admitted by the courts, further adding to patient numbers (2,000 by 1920). Although Cleveland State Hospital kept pace with progress in medicine, conditions continued to decline in the 1920s and 1930s because of overcrowding and irregular state support. In 1946 investigations by the Cleveland Press and the newly formed Cleveland Mental Health Assn. revealed brutality and criminal neglect, and often squalid conditions.  [[Cleveland State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
Prior to the 1840s, little distinction was made between rational and mentally ill inmates. A county report from the 1840s made reference to harsh restraints used to separate the mentally ill from other inmates. The mentally ill were housed on the upper floor of a farm building used to keep pigs.  [[Eloise Asylum|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 02:54, 18 April 2021

Featured Article Of The Week

Cleveland State Hospital


Cleveland03.jpg

The Cleveland State Hospital was a state-supported psychiatric facility for long-term care. Originally known as the Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, it was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio during the 1850s. It was later known as Newburgh State Hospital. The Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum was authorized by an act of the Ohio legislature. The main building, containing 100 beds, was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh donated by the family of James A. Garfield, later U.S. president. Previously, many of those considered insane had been kept in jails or almshouses. The asylum was to provide a quiet place outside the city where healthy, moral living habits could be learned (although management of disturbed patients then also included seclusion, cuffs, straps, strait-jackets, and cribs). The hospital was run by a 5-member Board of Trustees appointed by the governor, with Dr. Horace Ackley the first chair and superintendent. In its first 100 years, the hospital had 21 different superintendents; the last, Dr. William Grover, served for 18 years.

In its early years, the hospital had a homelike atmosphere; patients and staff usually dined together. An "open" facility, most patients were free to make use of the grounds. After a fire in 1872, a more substantial structure was built, with capacity for 650 patients. But by 1874 there were reports of overcrowding, a persistent problem. By 1900 the hospital had cared for over 10,000 patients. At this time it began to treat mainly poorer patients, including an increasing number admitted by the courts, further adding to patient numbers (2,000 by 1920). Although Cleveland State Hospital kept pace with progress in medicine, conditions continued to decline in the 1920s and 1930s because of overcrowding and irregular state support. In 1946 investigations by the Cleveland Press and the newly formed Cleveland Mental Health Assn. revealed brutality and criminal neglect, and often squalid conditions. Click here for more...