Mount View Lunatic Asylum

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Mount View Lunatic Asylum
Opened 1873
Closed 1910
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Single Building
Architect(s) Christian Julius Toxward
Location South Wellington, NZ
Alternate Names



History[edit]

The Mt. View Asylum was proclaimed on 22 May 1873 with Dr Charles France as Medical Officer. Henry and Charlotte Seager as Keeper and Matron were appointed from Karori Asylum. The asylum was built on that portion of the Town Belt now partly occupied by Government House. Between 1873 and 1875 the grounds were leveled and an approach built from Adelaide Road by prisoners from the Wellington jail who had been sentenced to hard labour. The building was designed by the architect Christian Julius Toxward who was later to design Wellington Public Hospital at Newtown. The original two-story structure became the central portion of the building when it was later enlarged by the addition of two wings.

By 1905 the number of patients reached 250. For variable periods it was closed to new admissions which were all sent to Porirua Hospital. In May 1910 the remaining patients were transferred, the bulk of them to Porirua, but also to Christchurch and Seacliff asylums following the site being chosen as the location for the new Government House.