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

From Asylum Projects
Jump to: navigation, search
(I didn't see that Soldat added to the future list so I decided to revert my earlier additon for Soldat's nomination.)
 
(716 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{FAformat
 
{{FAformat
|Title= Blockley Almshouse
+
|Title= Terrell State Hospital
|Image= Spruce Street Almshouse.jpg
+
|Image= Tsh4.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= With the Frind's Almshouse operating since 1713 the city put off construction of it's own facilities until 1732, and the Philadelphia Almshouse was established. Occupying the entire block between Third and Fourth, Spruce and Pine Streets this was the first government funded poorhouse in the United States and was regarded as a model institution, it had separate facilities for the indigent and the insane, and also an infirmary. In 1767, the much larger alms house with an infirmary, and the house of workhouse were completed on the south side of Spruce Street between Tenth and Eleventh. By 1830, overcrowding necessitated further expansion, and a new alms house for men and another for women, a separate hospital and a workhouse were built, 1827-1832. This included departments for children as well as a colored department. This complex was built across the Schuylkill River in Blockley Township, in what is now University City in West Philadelphia. William Strickland was the architect and Samuel Sloan, later to be a well-known architect, worked as journeyman carpenter on the project. This facility soon became known as "Old Bockley". Operated by a city committee known as the Guardians of the Poor, Blockley’s early reputation for care was dismal. In 1864, the "Female Lunatic Asylum" building was accidentally destroyed by workers installing heaters, killing 18 women and injuring another 20. Article on Fire By 1885 there had been four fires at the institution. Blockley's geographical isolation from city medical institutions limited clinical care until the University of Pennsylvania, with its medical school, moved to a new site just north of the Almshouse grounds in 1871.
+
|Body= In 1883, when word was circulated that the State of Texas was seeking a location for a second major mental facility and that it would be located in Northeast Texas, the competition among cities must have been quite similar to the quest for industry and other major developments that exist today.
  
Despite the huge size of the institution for its time, with the ability to accommodate about 3,000, by 1870 it was overcrowded with a population of 3,789. According to the 1878 Annual report of the Board of Commissioners of Public Charities Blockley's Insane department housed 1,200, accounting for a full quarter of all insane in the state. In order to address this overcrowding at Blockley the state built the State Asylum for the Insane at Norristown, opening in 1880.[[Blockley Almshouse|Click here for more...]]
+
Terrell was fortunate at that time to include among the citizens of a still young town a large group of people with the foresight to understand what such a facility could mean to a growing city. But even the farsightedness of legendary rancher and banker Col. Jim Harris, who gave the necessary acreage to the state for a meager return, could not have visualized the proportions to which Terrell State Hospital has grown today nor the immense impact it has had on the local economy for over 100 years.
 +
 
 +
A total of $200,000 was appropriated for the purchase of the property and construction of the original facilities. It all began, officially, on February 16, 1883, when the 18th Texas Legislature enacted a statute introduced by Judge John Austin. The word "asylum"--by the original definition--was a place of refuge and safety and that, at best, was the primary service offered by mental facilities in the United States at that time.
 +
 
 +
Governor John Ireland commissioned the purchase of 672.65 acres of land located east of Terrell and offered by Jim Harris. This would be site for the branch asylum and the new institution was to be known as North Texas Lunatic Asylum. Its stated purpose was to provide treatment and care for the "chronic incurable insane" of the state's northern counties. [[Terrell State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 04:21, 23 June 2024

Featured Article Of The Week

Terrell State Hospital


Tsh4.jpg

In 1883, when word was circulated that the State of Texas was seeking a location for a second major mental facility and that it would be located in Northeast Texas, the competition among cities must have been quite similar to the quest for industry and other major developments that exist today.

Terrell was fortunate at that time to include among the citizens of a still young town a large group of people with the foresight to understand what such a facility could mean to a growing city. But even the farsightedness of legendary rancher and banker Col. Jim Harris, who gave the necessary acreage to the state for a meager return, could not have visualized the proportions to which Terrell State Hospital has grown today nor the immense impact it has had on the local economy for over 100 years.

A total of $200,000 was appropriated for the purchase of the property and construction of the original facilities. It all began, officially, on February 16, 1883, when the 18th Texas Legislature enacted a statute introduced by Judge John Austin. The word "asylum"--by the original definition--was a place of refuge and safety and that, at best, was the primary service offered by mental facilities in the United States at that time.

Governor John Ireland commissioned the purchase of 672.65 acres of land located east of Terrell and offered by Jim Harris. This would be site for the branch asylum and the new institution was to be known as North Texas Lunatic Asylum. Its stated purpose was to provide treatment and care for the "chronic incurable insane" of the state's northern counties. Click here for more...