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

From Asylum Projects
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 1: Line 1:
 
{{FAformat
 
{{FAformat
|Title= Napa State Hospital
+
|Title= Eastern State Hospital Lexington
|Image= Napa2.png
+
|Image= eshKYadmin.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= In 1872, a site was selected, and work began to erect the 500-bed, four-story, Gothic-style hospital building. The hospital originated due to overcrowded conditions at the Stockton Asylum, the first State Hospital. The doors of the unfinished entrance of Napa State Hospital opened on Monday, November 15, 1875, to the first individuals, two San Franciscans.
+
|Body= On February 15, 1816, the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing a public hospital in Fayette County. The act incorporated a group of citizens, the “Contributors of the Fayette Hospital,” who wished to erect a building at their own expense to serve as a hospital for the accommodation of “lunatics” as well as other “sick poor.” The act gave the Contributors the right to establish a committee, elect officers, raise money to purchase a piece of land in or near Lexington, and to contract for the construction of a building to serve as the hospital (An act for founding, 1816). The Contributors meet on March 1, 1816 and elected a building committee consisting of Andrew McCalla, Sterling Allen, Stephen Chipley, Thomas January,and Richard Higgins. McCalla was appointed chairman (Fayette Hospital, 1816). In an open letter in the Kentucky Reporter on April 17, 1816, the Committee presented their mission and asked for assistance. They noted that there were many “poor, disabled, and infirm members of society” without the aid of medicine who with the assistance that could be provided by a “Public Hospital,” might become useful to themselves, their families, and society. They also noted that “lunatics,” who have no “rich relatives” to care for them, “roam at large through the country...” and in many instances “endanger the lives of other members of society.” The best remedy, they suggested, was the erection of a public hospital. They argued that the hospital was not only their best chance at a cure but also a means by which physicians could acquire “superior skill” by treating them. Finally, they declared that “society itself would be made more secure against the wild and desperate actions of lunatics, if provision was made to contain them within its walls.” The Committee concluded the letter by requesting that “ALL” people of Kentucky contribute to the support of the hospital (To the people of Kentucky, 1816).
Napa3.jpg
 
  
Initially, 192 acres of land were purchased for $11,506 from Don Cayetano Juarez. These acres were part of the Mexican Land Grant, Rancho Tulocay, received from General Mariano Vallejo. Additional land was acquired over the years, bringing the total to over 2,000 acres. The land extended from a wharf on the Napa River to the eastern edge of Skyline Park, allowing for the development of dairy and poultry ranches, vegetable gardens, orchards, and other farming operations necessary to make the hospital as self-sufficient as possible. Farming operations ceased in the late 1960's. Napa Valley College, Kennedy Park, and Skyline Wilderness Park occupy most of this land.
+
Their early efforts must have been effective for not long after their incorporation, the Building Committee purchased the “Sinking Spring” property on which the present hospital now stands (Perrin 1882: 391). On June 30, 1817, the corner-stone of the “Fayette Hospital” building was laid in the presence of a large group of spectators. The oration was given by Henry Clay, U.S. Representative from Kentucky. In the corner-stone were deposited the newspapers of Lexington for that week, some silver and copper coins, two publications in favor of the institution. [[Eastern State Hospital Lexington|Click here for more...]]
 
 
The population peaked in 1960 with over 5,000 individuals in residence and then steadily declined with the arrival of psychotropic medications and the development of county-based programs. Treatment programs for developmentally disabled residents were operant from October 1968 to August 1987 and from October 1995 to March 2001. [[Napa State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 05:07, 3 December 2023

Featured Article Of The Week

Eastern State Hospital Lexington


eshKYadmin.jpg

On February 15, 1816, the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing a public hospital in Fayette County. The act incorporated a group of citizens, the “Contributors of the Fayette Hospital,” who wished to erect a building at their own expense to serve as a hospital for the accommodation of “lunatics” as well as other “sick poor.” The act gave the Contributors the right to establish a committee, elect officers, raise money to purchase a piece of land in or near Lexington, and to contract for the construction of a building to serve as the hospital (An act for founding, 1816). The Contributors meet on March 1, 1816 and elected a building committee consisting of Andrew McCalla, Sterling Allen, Stephen Chipley, Thomas January,and Richard Higgins. McCalla was appointed chairman (Fayette Hospital, 1816). In an open letter in the Kentucky Reporter on April 17, 1816, the Committee presented their mission and asked for assistance. They noted that there were many “poor, disabled, and infirm members of society” without the aid of medicine who with the assistance that could be provided by a “Public Hospital,” might become useful to themselves, their families, and society. They also noted that “lunatics,” who have no “rich relatives” to care for them, “roam at large through the country...” and in many instances “endanger the lives of other members of society.” The best remedy, they suggested, was the erection of a public hospital. They argued that the hospital was not only their best chance at a cure but also a means by which physicians could acquire “superior skill” by treating them. Finally, they declared that “society itself would be made more secure against the wild and desperate actions of lunatics, if provision was made to contain them within its walls.” The Committee concluded the letter by requesting that “ALL” people of Kentucky contribute to the support of the hospital (To the people of Kentucky, 1816).

Their early efforts must have been effective for not long after their incorporation, the Building Committee purchased the “Sinking Spring” property on which the present hospital now stands (Perrin 1882: 391). On June 30, 1817, the corner-stone of the “Fayette Hospital” building was laid in the presence of a large group of spectators. The oration was given by Henry Clay, U.S. Representative from Kentucky. In the corner-stone were deposited the newspapers of Lexington for that week, some silver and copper coins, two publications in favor of the institution. Click here for more...