Dr. Barnes Sanitarium

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Dr. Barnes Sanitarium
Construction Began 1894
Building Style Cottage Plan
Location Stamford, CT
Peak Patient Population 60
Alternate Names
  • Grey Towers



History[edit]

1916 Description; This Sanitarium was organized in 1894 by an act of the Legislature. Subsequently in 1898, when it became The Dr. Barnes Sanitarium, it was licensed under a new act which applied to all the institution of the state.

The sanitarium is situated in a park of 50 acres on high ground overlooking Long Island Sound. The buildings are six in number. They are so arranged that patients can be classified in a thorough manner. A farm is connected which gives an abundant supply of vegetables and fruit. It also gives the opportunity for out-of-door work by the patients.

Among the special features of treatment are freedom from bars and bolts, and the insistence on proper physical exercise in the open air.

The medical superintendent is Dr. F. H. Barnes, who for the past five years has been connected with the neurological department of the New York Post-Graduate Hospital, and is neurologist to the Stamford Hospital.[1]

The institution was built approximately two miles out of the city of Stamford, on a twenty five acre plot of land. A single grey stone house was designated for the treatment of alcoholics and narcotic addicts, as well as mild cases of mental disease. A small cottage nearby housed several female patients of low income.

The main building was a three story wooden structure, where men were housed on the second floor and women patients on the third. The building was "heated by hot air furnaces and powered by electricity." A fourth building, an annex for violent male patients, and those of "lower means" was located near the main building. The facility held 60 patients in 1898.[2]

References[edit]

  1. Hurd, Henry M., William F. Drewry, Richard Dewey, Charles W. Pilgrim, G. Alder Blumer and T.J.W. Burgess. The Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada. Vol. II. Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins Press, 1916.
  2. "Report, Connecticut Public Welfare Council, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Annual Reports of the State Board of Charities of Connecticut."Waterbury Connecticut, September 1896. Digital Archive, Accessed 09/25/2013, http://books.google.com/books?id=7mY2AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA113&lpg=RA1-PA113&dq=%22Dr.+F.+H.+barnes%22&source=bl&ots=j67KCAyS0f&sig=lZLb58u33ByWjs8Rvdqu4nBeLLg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GjBDUt7TAvfi4AO40oCgCw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=%22Dr.%20F.%20H.%20barnes%22&f=false"