Portal:Featured Article Of The Week
Featured Article Of The Week
Vinta State Hospital
Eastern State Hospital has been a major factor in the economy of Craig County since 1913, and its influence in mental health matters has extended well beyond its service area. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the mentally ill first were cared for through contract with private sanitariums. In Indian Territory, Cherokee Nation had maintained an asylum at Park Hill.
Eastern Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane was established by the Oklahoma State Legislature in 1909, to be located at Vinita, Craig County; on a 160 acre tract of land given to the State by the City of Vinita for this purpose. The land on which the hospital was established originally was owned by S.S. Cobb.
An appropriation was made to erect buildings, which were completed late in 1912. Dr. F.M. Adams was appointed August 12, 1912, by Governor Lee Croce as the hospital superintendent. His original four-year appointment stretched into a lifetime job. Dr. Adams served until his death in December 1955.
The first patients were received on January 28, 1913, when 300 people were transferred by special train from the Oklahoma Sanatorium at Norman. The special train was unloaded at a siding designated "Asylum Spur," a little more than a mile south of the hospital. Wagons were sent to carry the women and a few older men, and the others walked to the new hospital.
During 1914 Building No. 3 was completed, and immediately 300 more patients were moved here from Norman. By 1954, the institution had a capacity of 2,600 patients and a capital investment of $6,541,050. Click here for more...
