Portal:Featured Article Of The Week
Featured Article Of The Week
Trenton State Hospital
The Trenton Psychiatric Hospital Historic District occupies much of the Hospital’s approximately 100acre campus in Trenton and Ewing Township. The hospital was founded in 1848 at the urging of Dorthea Dix and was first know as the New Jersey Lunatic Asylum. It was the first institution established in New Jersey for the mentally ill. The hospital today includes an extensive campus with large, primarily stone buildings constructed from the mid-19th throughout the 20th centuries amid beautifully landscaped grounds. Noted Philadelphia architect John Notman and nationally significant landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing were responsible for the property’s original plan. The historic district buildings include the main hospital, a cafeteria, a laundry, a firehouse, a shop, a laboratory, a powerhouse, the gatehouse and several residences for the Superintendent, the Commissioner, 12 doctors and a nurse’s dormitory. The New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office has determined that the site is eligible for inclusion on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The primary threat to the complex is demolition, although neglect is also taking its toll on the district.
The first of New Jersey’s public mental hospitals, Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, began providing services on May 15, 1848. The hospital was founded by Dorothea Lynde Dix, the renowned pioneer and advocate for humane care and treatment of the mentally ill. Ms. Dix always looked upon Trenton Psychiatric Hospital as her "firstborn child." She spent her declining years as a guest of the hospital and died there in 1887. Click here for more...
