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

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|Title= St. Louis State Hospital
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|Title= Weston State Hospital
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|Image= Westsh.jpg
 
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|Body= On April 23, 1869 outside the City of St. Louis, "St. Louis County Lunatic Asylum" opened its doors to 150 mentally ill people on what is now 53 acres in southwest St. Louis. Designed and built by architect William Rumbold, it is the second governmental facility in the state to serve this population. Rumbold also designed the dome on the Old Courthouse, site of the famous Dred Scott trials and now part of the Gateway Arch National Park. (It is believed he went on to consult on the design of the dome on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.) The building's bricks were made on site and cost overruns made it the most expensive facility of its kind west of the Mississippi, $750,000 in a time when annual income was $150-$200.
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|Body= This was West Virginia's first public institution. Its construction was begun by the State of Virginia before the separation of West Virginia from the mother state, the first appropriation having been made by the Legislature of Virginia, March 22, 1858. The institution was opened October 22, 1859, when nine patients were brought from Ohio, where they had been in temporary care awaiting the completion of the hospital. Dr. R. Hills, formerly of the Central Ohio Insane Asylum, was made superintendent and Dr. N. B. Barnes, assistant.
  
In 1876 the City of St. Louis separates from St. Louis County, so the facility name changes to "The St. Louis City Insane Asylum". Thirty-five years later, it was renamed "City Sanitarium". Regarded as a showpiece, a model of the western world's ability to take care of its more vulnerable, the Dome Building became a "must see" for foreign dignitaries and tourists. The elevation of its city view made it the premier lookout point prior to the 630 ft. Gateway Arch. Graffiti inside the dome attests to its many visitors. Periodically, civic and social leaders dressed up to dance with patients in the ballroom below the dome. Later, debutante parties were common in the Dome Building lobby.
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In the first years of its history the institution was encompassed with many difficulties. Not only were there financial troubles, but Confederate soldiers in a raid appropriated the blankets belonging to the patients, and in a second raid a ward was destroyed. The people of Weston very generously came to the rescue and contributed their own blankets to fill the temporary needs, public acknowledgment of which was made by the superintendent in his report. In 1868 the population of the hospital was 40; since that date there has been a continual increase in the number of inmates, and a corresponding increase in the appropriation for running expenses, until at the present time the population of the institution is 1023.
  
By 1907, construction on wings and annexes (known as buildings B, C, D, E, G, H, I, J, and separate K building) to the original building commences to accommodate the 2000 patients and 300 staff members. More and more people are admitted to the hospital because roads and transportation improved. The next overflow crisis occurred in the early 1920s which precipitated a separate building being erected for attendants' quarters. This freed space in the hospital into which patients could be moved. By 1940, the hospital had 3,844 patients.  [[St. Louis State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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The grounds belonging to the hospital contain about 335 acres, and front about 2000 feet on the West Fork River, opposite the town of Weston, and extend back to the north to a depth sufficient for this acreage. With the exception of the site on which the buildings are located, which extends back from the river about 800 feet, the land is very steep and entirely unsuitable for tillage. A very small portion of it is used for gardening, but in the main it is used for grazing.  [[Weston State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:35, 16 April 2017

Featured Article Of The Week

Weston State Hospital


Westsh.jpg

This was West Virginia's first public institution. Its construction was begun by the State of Virginia before the separation of West Virginia from the mother state, the first appropriation having been made by the Legislature of Virginia, March 22, 1858. The institution was opened October 22, 1859, when nine patients were brought from Ohio, where they had been in temporary care awaiting the completion of the hospital. Dr. R. Hills, formerly of the Central Ohio Insane Asylum, was made superintendent and Dr. N. B. Barnes, assistant.

In the first years of its history the institution was encompassed with many difficulties. Not only were there financial troubles, but Confederate soldiers in a raid appropriated the blankets belonging to the patients, and in a second raid a ward was destroyed. The people of Weston very generously came to the rescue and contributed their own blankets to fill the temporary needs, public acknowledgment of which was made by the superintendent in his report. In 1868 the population of the hospital was 40; since that date there has been a continual increase in the number of inmates, and a corresponding increase in the appropriation for running expenses, until at the present time the population of the institution is 1023.

The grounds belonging to the hospital contain about 335 acres, and front about 2000 feet on the West Fork River, opposite the town of Weston, and extend back to the north to a depth sufficient for this acreage. With the exception of the site on which the buildings are located, which extends back from the river about 800 feet, the land is very steep and entirely unsuitable for tillage. A very small portion of it is used for gardening, but in the main it is used for grazing. Click here for more...