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

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|Title= St. Louis State Hospital
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|Title= Mendota Mental Health Institute
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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= Mendota opened on July 14, 1860 when it admitted a patient who had been brought all the way from Oconto County...a long trip by horse and wagon. Even though the hospital was not yet ready to open, that Saturday it was decided that, because of the distance the patient had been brought, he should be received. Thus began Mendota's ready response to the needs of patients and communities, which has been its tradition.
  
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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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Mendota has gone through many changes since then, some of them dramatized in the changes in its name. It opened as an "Asylum", appropriate in an era when little could be done for the mentally ill except to house and care for them...i.e. to give them asylum...when their families and communities could no longer cope with their needs.
  
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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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In a later era, when patients were recognized as having an illness...mental illness...the name was changed to Mendota State Hospital, reflecting its responsibility for providing treatment.
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In more recent times, with the discovery of psychiatric medications and with new approaches (some of which resulted from research at Mendota itself) it became possible for the mentally ill to be treated in community hospitals and clinics. But there remained a need for a place for those who required more specialized treatment than most community hospitals and clinics could provide, and where the tradition of research, education, and consultation that Mendota had already established could continue. Mendota was then changed to its present name of Mendota Mental Health Institute.  [[Mendota Mental Health Institute|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:45, 2 August 2020

Featured Article Of The Week

Mendota Mental Health Institute


Mendota03.jpg

Mendota opened on July 14, 1860 when it admitted a patient who had been brought all the way from Oconto County...a long trip by horse and wagon. Even though the hospital was not yet ready to open, that Saturday it was decided that, because of the distance the patient had been brought, he should be received. Thus began Mendota's ready response to the needs of patients and communities, which has been its tradition.

Mendota has gone through many changes since then, some of them dramatized in the changes in its name. It opened as an "Asylum", appropriate in an era when little could be done for the mentally ill except to house and care for them...i.e. to give them asylum...when their families and communities could no longer cope with their needs.

In a later era, when patients were recognized as having an illness...mental illness...the name was changed to Mendota State Hospital, reflecting its responsibility for providing treatment.

In more recent times, with the discovery of psychiatric medications and with new approaches (some of which resulted from research at Mendota itself) it became possible for the mentally ill to be treated in community hospitals and clinics. But there remained a need for a place for those who required more specialized treatment than most community hospitals and clinics could provide, and where the tradition of research, education, and consultation that Mendota had already established could continue. Mendota was then changed to its present name of Mendota Mental Health Institute. Click here for more...

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