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

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|Title= St Elizabeths Hospital
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|Title= Chicago State Hospital
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|Image= St_Elizabeth_SH_Kirkbride.jpg
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|Image= Chicago.jpg
 
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|Body= In November of 1852, a tract of land overlooking the Anacostia River was purchased for $25,000 from Thomas Blagden. Construction began almost immediately on the center building, a red brick fortress designed in Gothic revival style by Thomas U. Walter, who also designed the dome of the Capital Building. The hospital was built following the Kirkbride Plan. Most of the construction of the center building was done by slaves. It opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane. The Hospital's early mission, as defined by its founder, the leading mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, was to provide the "most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated here were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum. They said they were at St. Elizabeth's, the colonial name of the land where the Hospital is located. Congress officially changed the Hospital's name to St. Elizabeth's in 1916. By the 1940s, the Hospital complex covered an area of over 300 acres. At its peak, 4,000 people worked, and 7,000 patients lived there. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. The first appropriation towards building the Government Hospital for the Insane was $100,000, which Congress made in 1852 to purchase land. The organic act creating the institution outlining the duties of its officers and providing for the admission of various classes of insane patients was not approved until March 3, 1855. The hospital, however, had been opened for the reception of patients on January 15,1855.
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|Body= In 1851, the county poor farm was established at the town of Jefferson, Ill., about 12 miles northwest of Chicago. The farm consisted of 160 acres of fairly improved land and was formerly owned by Peter Ludby, who located it in 1839. Additional land was purchased in 1860 and in 1884. In 1915, the land consisted of 234 acres. By November 1854, the county poorhouse was nearly finished. The building was of brick, three stories high and a basement, and cost about $25,000.
  
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The creation of the hospital was due very largely to the activity of Dorothea L. Dix. She drew up with her own pen the outlines of the organic act establishing the institution and virtually named its first superintendent, Dr. C. H. Nicholas. During the latter part of her life, Miss Dix spent much of her time at the hospital, where quarters were always reserved for her, and the little desk upon which she drew up the original act creating the hospital stands in the board room in the main building.  [[St Elizabeths Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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In 1858, Dr. D. B. Fonda served as the physician for the poorhouse and the insane departments. At the time, the building of the insane asylum, 200 feet south of the almshouse hospital, was contemplated.  [[Chicago State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Latest revision as of 11:54, 18 January 2026

Featured Article Of The Week

Chicago State Hospital


Chicago.jpg

In 1851, the county poor farm was established at the town of Jefferson, Ill., about 12 miles northwest of Chicago. The farm consisted of 160 acres of fairly improved land and was formerly owned by Peter Ludby, who located it in 1839. Additional land was purchased in 1860 and in 1884. In 1915, the land consisted of 234 acres. By November 1854, the county poorhouse was nearly finished. The building was of brick, three stories high and a basement, and cost about $25,000.

In 1858, Dr. D. B. Fonda served as the physician for the poorhouse and the insane departments. At the time, the building of the insane asylum, 200 feet south of the almshouse hospital, was contemplated. Click here for more...

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