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

From Asylum Projects
Jump to: navigation, search
 
(32 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{FAformat
 
{{FAformat
−
|Title= Spencer State Hospital
+
|Title= Ionia State Hospital
−
|Image= SpencerSH_02_Modified.jpg
+
|Image= Ionia.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
−
|Body= The state's Second Hospital for the Insane was opened on July 18, 1893. At the time of the opening, 54 patients were admitted to the new facility. By 1899 the number of patients had increased to 389 and by 1910 to 696. Some of the disorders patients were admitted for were alcoholic excess, overwork, senility, hereditary insanity, worry, ill health, head injuries, syphilis, epilepsy, paralysis, morphia, cocaine use, cholera, disease of the uterus, pneumonia, bereavement, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and childbed fever.
+
|Body= The building of the Ionia State Hospital was authorized in 1883 and was opened under the name of the Michigan Asylum for Insane Criminals in 1885. It was found that this name was objectionable as not all of the patients in the hospital were criminals, so the name was changed by legislative action to Ionia State Hospital. The patients committed to this hospital were insane felons, criminal sexual psychopaths, insane convicts from other prisons, patients transferred from other state institutions that had developed dangerous or homicidal tendencies and persons charged with a crime but acquitted on the grounds of insanity. Initially the hospital patients were housed at the site of the Michigan Reformatory.
  
−
For the first ten years the open door system was used. No doors were locked and some doors were even removed. This system was considered a success. Even though this open door system was very successful a fence was erected around the hospital to separate the patients from the town. Many of the patients were able to work. They worked in the kitchen, laundry, sewing rooms, lawns, gardens and on the farm. The 15 acres of farm and woodlands were used for grazing of a fine dairy herd, fattening hogs, and raising poultry, as well as, supporting large gardens. The gardens produced enough to feed patients and staff during summer, with extra vegetables and canned goods for the winter.
+
The hospital was called the North Branch and the farm located on Riverside Drive was called the South Branch. When a large fire broke out at the hospital, all of the rooms were needed to house prisoners, so all of the hospital patients were sent to the South Branch farm. Since that time, the hospital has been located on the grounds of the Riverside Correctional Facility. The hospital was used to treat the mentally ill as well as the criminally insane until 1972, when civilians were removed from the hospital. In 1977, the Legislature transferred the operation to the Department of Corrections when it began operation as a correctional facility. The facility was closed with the reopening of the Michigan Reformatory. [[Ionia State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
−
 
 
−
In the early 1920's the name of the institution was changed to the Spencer State Hospital. In 1937 a five bed hospital clinic was added. By 1941, reports show that over 9,000 persons had been treated there. Many persons without families lived most of their lives in the institution and were buried in unmarked graves. Many of the patients were not mentally ill. Among those were elderly persons and unwanted children. In 1950, a staff of three doctors and 150 psychiatric aides were caring for 1,200 patients.   [[Spencer State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 04:56, 5 May 2024

Featured Article Of The Week

Ionia State Hospital


Ionia.jpg

The building of the Ionia State Hospital was authorized in 1883 and was opened under the name of the Michigan Asylum for Insane Criminals in 1885. It was found that this name was objectionable as not all of the patients in the hospital were criminals, so the name was changed by legislative action to Ionia State Hospital. The patients committed to this hospital were insane felons, criminal sexual psychopaths, insane convicts from other prisons, patients transferred from other state institutions that had developed dangerous or homicidal tendencies and persons charged with a crime but acquitted on the grounds of insanity. Initially the hospital patients were housed at the site of the Michigan Reformatory.

The hospital was called the North Branch and the farm located on Riverside Drive was called the South Branch. When a large fire broke out at the hospital, all of the rooms were needed to house prisoners, so all of the hospital patients were sent to the South Branch farm. Since that time, the hospital has been located on the grounds of the Riverside Correctional Facility. The hospital was used to treat the mentally ill as well as the criminally insane until 1972, when civilians were removed from the hospital. In 1977, the Legislature transferred the operation to the Department of Corrections when it began operation as a correctional facility. The facility was closed with the reopening of the Michigan Reformatory. Click here for more...

Retrieved from "http://asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Portal:Featured_Article_Of_The_Week&oldid=44057"