Portal:Featured Image Of The Week
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Featured Image Of The Week
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In 1883, Indiana's Legislature authorized funding for the construction of a new facility in Evansville to treat mentally ill patients. A secluded, densely wooded farm on Newburgh Road (now Lincoln Avenue), then three miles outside of the city, was selected as the site, and on Oct. 30, 1890, the new hospital admitted its first two patients. Known in its early years as Woodmere ("tranquility in the forest") The hospital was built on 160 acres of land on Newburgh Road, now known as Lincoln Avenue, between Evansville and Newburgh. The campus quickly expanded, eventually holding nearly 900 acres of what is now the East Side of Evansville, including the land eventually repurposed for Robert Stadium, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Wesselman’s Woods Nature Preserve. Using patient labor, the hospital staffed a working farm, including dairy cows, poultry and an orchard.
