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

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|Title= Willard State Hospital
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|Title= Mendocino State Hospital
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|Body= In 1853, the site was acquired for the state's first agricultural college. The college - on 440 acres of farmland in the town of Ovid, "the geographical centre and Eden of the Empire State" - opened in December 1860, but it didn't last long. Within months, its president and most of the teachers and students marched off to fight in the Civil War, and the college never reopened. It was superseded by the new state university, established in Ithaca on land donated by state Senator Ezra Cornell.
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|Body= Mendocino State Hospital, originally the Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane, was established in 1889 (Statutes 1889, Ch. 23). By that law the Governor was authorized to appoint a board of directors of five members for a term of four years to select the site and to manage the institution. In October 1890 contracts we let out for the construction of the male ward building, connecting corridor, kitchen building, laundry, bakery, and the boiler and engine house. The contract for these buildings was for $182,52. On the 26th of January, 1891 contracts were let out for the female building for $89,025, and the following April 1891 construction began on the hospital. Additional funds were allocated for completion of mentioned buildings, including $60,000 for construction of the administration building.
  
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Soon afterward, the site was earmarked for the Willard Asylum for the Insane, which would represent a second and major step toward transferring responsibility for the care of the mentally ill to the state. From colonial times, the care of insane persons had been a local function. Each county operated a poorhouse, or almshouse, wherein was indiscriminately lodged a hodgepodge of dependant persons: the mad, the feebleminded, the aged and crippled, drunks, epileptics and beggars. The almshouses provided custody and shelter, but "treatment" was not in their vocabulary.
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On December 12 1893 the Hospital was finished and opened to patients, receiving 60 from Napa State Hospital this same day. Two days later 60 more arrived from Stockton State Hospital and on March 25 30 from Agnews State Hospital, bringing the population to 150.
  
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The first step toward state assumption of responsibility was the opening of the Utica Lunatic Asylum in 1843. Utica was established as a treatment facility. It was reserved for new, acute eases and was required by law to return to county custody any patient who was not discharged as recovered within two years. Still condemned to the almshouse were the incurables, who, contrary to the unreal expectations of early asylum enthusiasts, were the norm among the pauper lunatic class. Dorothea Dix, among others including the underfunded county superintendents of the poor, drew the Legislature's attention to the unspeakable plight of the chronically ill.  [[Willard State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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In 1893, the name of the hospital was changed to the Mendocino Asylum (Statutes 1893, Ch. 64). With the Insanity Law of 1897, the hospital took on the name of Mendocino State Hospital. The Insanity Law created the State Commission on Lunacy which was given authority to see that all laws relating to care and treatment of patients were carried out and to make recommendations to the Legislature concerning the management of hospitals for the insane. The 1897 law provided that each hospital should be controlled by a board of managers of five members appointed by the Governor for four year terms.
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In 1921, the state hospitals were placed under the authority of the newly-created Dept. of Institutions. The board of managers continued, but only with advisory power.  [[Mendocino State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:37, 13 January 2014

Featured Article Of The Week

Mendocino State Hospital


Msh1.jpg

Mendocino State Hospital, originally the Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane, was established in 1889 (Statutes 1889, Ch. 23). By that law the Governor was authorized to appoint a board of directors of five members for a term of four years to select the site and to manage the institution. In October 1890 contracts we let out for the construction of the male ward building, connecting corridor, kitchen building, laundry, bakery, and the boiler and engine house. The contract for these buildings was for $182,52. On the 26th of January, 1891 contracts were let out for the female building for $89,025, and the following April 1891 construction began on the hospital. Additional funds were allocated for completion of mentioned buildings, including $60,000 for construction of the administration building.

On December 12 1893 the Hospital was finished and opened to patients, receiving 60 from Napa State Hospital this same day. Two days later 60 more arrived from Stockton State Hospital and on March 25 30 from Agnews State Hospital, bringing the population to 150.

In 1893, the name of the hospital was changed to the Mendocino Asylum (Statutes 1893, Ch. 64). With the Insanity Law of 1897, the hospital took on the name of Mendocino State Hospital. The Insanity Law created the State Commission on Lunacy which was given authority to see that all laws relating to care and treatment of patients were carried out and to make recommendations to the Legislature concerning the management of hospitals for the insane. The 1897 law provided that each hospital should be controlled by a board of managers of five members appointed by the Governor for four year terms.

In 1921, the state hospitals were placed under the authority of the newly-created Dept. of Institutions. The board of managers continued, but only with advisory power. Click here for more...

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