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

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{{FAformat
|Title= Crownsville State Hospital
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|Title= St Elizabeths Hospital
|Image= CrownsvilleSH_01.jpg
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|Image= St_Elizabeth_SH_Kirkbride.jpg
 
|Width= 150px
 
|Width= 150px
|Body= The hospital for the negro insane of Maryland, now known as the Crownsville State Hospital, was created by an act of the General Assembly on April 11, 1910, which made an appropriation of $100,000 for the purchase of land and the erection of buildings. Sections of the act creating the hospital, Chapter 250, Laws of Maryland, 1910, provided that there should be established in the State of Maryland an institution for the detention and care of the negro insane of the state. It was expressly provided that the hospital should not be located in Baltimore City.
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|Body= In November of 1852 a tract of land overlooking the Anacostia River was purchased for $25,000 from Thomas Blagden. Construction began almost immediately on the center building, a red brick fortress designed in Gothic revival style by Thomas U. Walter, who also designed the dome of the Capital Building. The hospital was built following the Kirkbride Plan, most of the construction of the center building was done by slaves. It opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane. The Hospital's early mission, as defined by its founder, the leading mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, was to provide the "most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated here were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum, and said they were at St. Elizabeth's, the colonial name of the land where the Hospital is located. Congress officially changed the Hospital's name to St. Elizabeth's in 1916. By the 1940s, the Hospital complex covering an area of over 300 acres. At its peak, 4,000 people worked and 7,000 patients lived there. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. The first appropriation towards building the Government Hospital for the Insane was of $100,000, and was made by Congress in 1852 for the purchase of land. The organic act creating the institution and outlining the duties of its officers and providing for the admission of various classes of insane patients was not approved until March 3, 1855. The hospital, however, had been opened for the reception of patients on January 15,1855.  [[St Elizabeths Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
It was further provided that the Board of Managers of the hospital was to consist of the Governor, ex-officio; State Treasurer, Comptroller of the Treasury, and six other persons, to constitute a body corporate under the title of the " Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland," with the power to appoint the necessary officers and agents. The act named the following persons, who, together with the Governor, State Comptroller and State Treasurer, were to constitute the first Board of Managers of the hospital: Hugh H. Young and Thomas Parran, to serve from the date of the passage of the act until the first of May, 1912; John T. Daily and William L. Marbury, to serve until the first day of May, 1914; J. Harry Covington and Henry P. Mann, to serve until the first day of May, 1916. It was provided that the Board of Managers should be divided into three classes, one-third of whom should go out of office every two years; and the Governor should have power, in case of any vacancy occurring, to appoint a person or persons to fill such vacancy or vacancies for the balance of term of said class. It was further enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland "that the Board of Managers immediately proceed to the erection, construction and equipment of suitable buildings to care for such of the negro insane of the State of Maryland as may be sent to the said hospital from time to time, in accordance with the general provisions of the acts of the General Assembly of Maryland relative to the care and treatment of the insane of the state." [[Crownsville State Hospitall|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 05:37, 28 June 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

St Elizabeths Hospital


St Elizabeth SH Kirkbride.jpg

In November of 1852 a tract of land overlooking the Anacostia River was purchased for $25,000 from Thomas Blagden. Construction began almost immediately on the center building, a red brick fortress designed in Gothic revival style by Thomas U. Walter, who also designed the dome of the Capital Building. The hospital was built following the Kirkbride Plan, most of the construction of the center building was done by slaves. It opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane. The Hospital's early mission, as defined by its founder, the leading mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, was to provide the "most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated here were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum, and said they were at St. Elizabeth's, the colonial name of the land where the Hospital is located. Congress officially changed the Hospital's name to St. Elizabeth's in 1916. By the 1940s, the Hospital complex covering an area of over 300 acres. At its peak, 4,000 people worked and 7,000 patients lived there. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. The first appropriation towards building the Government Hospital for the Insane was of $100,000, and was made by Congress in 1852 for the purchase of land. The organic act creating the institution and outlining the duties of its officers and providing for the admission of various classes of insane patients was not approved until March 3, 1855. The hospital, however, had been opened for the reception of patients on January 15,1855. Click here for more...