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

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{{FAformat
|Title= Pilgrim State Hospital
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|Title= Western Maine Sanatorium
|Image= Pilgrimsh1.jpg
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|Image= westmaineTB.png
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= At the time it was opened, it was the largest hospital of any type in the world. Its size has never been exceeded by any other facility, although today Pilgrim is far smaller than it used to be.
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|Body= When the Maine State Sanatorium on Greenwood Mountain in Hebron opened in 1904 to treat people with tuberculosis, it was only the fourth facility in the nation operating as a statewide sanatorium. Officially, it was the Maine Sanatorium Association that created the new institution, but Dr. Estes Nichols provided the expertise in tuberculosis treatment and the energy and vision behind the new venture.
  
By 1900, overcrowding in city asylums was becoming a major problem that many tried to resolve. One answer was to put the mentally ill to work farming in a relaxing setting on what was then rural Long Island. The new state hospitals were dubbed "Farm Colonies" because of their live-and-work treatment programs, agricultural focus and patient facilities. However, these farm colonies, the Kings Park State Hospital (later known as the Kings Park Psychiatric Center) and the Central Islip State Hospital (later known as the Central Islip Psychiatric Center), quickly became overcrowded, just like the earlier institutions they were supposed to replace.
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Nichols claimed to have visited all the sanatoriums in the United States and Canada and planned to build one on a mountain in rural Maine that would surpass any he had seen. He and the Association hired Portland architects John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, planned the farm that would feed patients and spread the word about what constituted effective treatment for the disease that had been known as consumption. The climate on Greenwood Mountain was as important as the design of the buildings and the methods of treatment.
  
NY state responded by making plans for a third so-called farm colony, what was to become the Pilgrim State Hospital, named in honor of the former New York State Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim. The state bought up approx. 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of land in Brentwood and began construction in 1930. The hospital opened on October 1, 1931 as a close knit community with its own police and fire department, courts, post office, a LIRR station, power plant, potter's field, swinery, cemetery, water tower and houses for doctors, psychiatrists, and asylum administrators. A series of underground tunnels were used for routing steam pipes and other vital utilities.  [[Pilgrim State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Until 1915 when the state took over control of the sanatorium, Dr. Nichols continued to raise money, oversee care of patients, deal with the Legislature, correspond with potential patients, and handle the day-to-day operations of the ever-growing facility. In 1915, the state passed a law to provide for the care and treatment of tubercular persons in three state-operated state sanatoriums. The state took over the private hospitals in Hebron and Fairfield and built a new facility in Presque Isle. The sanatoriums were given geographical designations -- Western Maine Sanatorium, Central Maine Sanatorium, and Northern Maine Sanatorium. The state capped patient bills at $5 per week.  [[Western Maine Sanatorium|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:50, 10 March 2024

Featured Article Of The Week

Western Maine Sanatorium


westmaineTB.png

When the Maine State Sanatorium on Greenwood Mountain in Hebron opened in 1904 to treat people with tuberculosis, it was only the fourth facility in the nation operating as a statewide sanatorium. Officially, it was the Maine Sanatorium Association that created the new institution, but Dr. Estes Nichols provided the expertise in tuberculosis treatment and the energy and vision behind the new venture.

Nichols claimed to have visited all the sanatoriums in the United States and Canada and planned to build one on a mountain in rural Maine that would surpass any he had seen. He and the Association hired Portland architects John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, planned the farm that would feed patients and spread the word about what constituted effective treatment for the disease that had been known as consumption. The climate on Greenwood Mountain was as important as the design of the buildings and the methods of treatment.

Until 1915 when the state took over control of the sanatorium, Dr. Nichols continued to raise money, oversee care of patients, deal with the Legislature, correspond with potential patients, and handle the day-to-day operations of the ever-growing facility. In 1915, the state passed a law to provide for the care and treatment of tubercular persons in three state-operated state sanatoriums. The state took over the private hospitals in Hebron and Fairfield and built a new facility in Presque Isle. The sanatoriums were given geographical designations -- Western Maine Sanatorium, Central Maine Sanatorium, and Northern Maine Sanatorium. The state capped patient bills at $5 per week. Click here for more...