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

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|Title= Manitowoc County Asylum
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|Title= Pilgrim State Hospital
|Image= ManitowocinsaneasylumML.jpg
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|Image= Pilgrimsh1.jpg
 
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|Body= William Rahr is due more credit, probably than any other man in the county, for the provision of an asylum for the care of the chronic insane of Manitowoc county. On April 18, 1884, he introduced a resolution in the county board, providing for a committee to investigate the expense of maintaining the insane of the county and the probable cost of building an asylum. Following favorable action on this resolution the necessary steps were taken and an asylum was built during the following summer. Mr. Rahr served on the first committee of investigation, later on the building committee and was the first trustee elected to the asylum board. The first board of trustees was composed of Messrs. William Rahr, John Carey, Henry Vits, Henry Goedjen and C. F. Hacker. Consequent to the resignation of William Rahr, William Lueps was appointed in his stead.
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|Body= At the time it was opened, it was the largest hospital of any type in the world, its size has never been exceeded by any other facility, although today Pilgrim is far smaller than it used to be.
  
On March 26, 1884, Gustav Mueller, of Reedsville, was elected as the first superintendent of the Manitowoc county asylum. On January 17, 1885, the first patients were brought to the asylum and up to May 23rd of the same year, when the first report was made, fifty-seven patients had been given care and comfort in the asylum. Previous to that time they had been confined in the county jail, while some had been left in charge of a keeper at St. Nazianz.
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By 1900, overcrowding in city asylums was becoming a major problem that many tried to resolve. One answer was to put the mentally ill to work farming in a relaxing setting on what was then rural Long Island. The new state hospitals were dubbed "Farm Colonies" because of their live-and-work treatment programs, agricultural focus and patient facilities. However, these farm colonies, the Kings Park State Hospital (later known as the Kings Park Psychiatric Center) and the Central Islip State Hospital (later known as the Central Islip Psychiatric Center), quickly became overcrowded, just like the earlier institutions they were supposed to replace.
  
In the next ten years the number of patients had increased to one hundred and thirty-four and at various times it had become necessary to make additions to the asylum. [[Manitowoc County Asylum|Click here for more...]]
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NY state responded by making plans for a third so-called farm colony, what was to become the Pilgrim State Hospital, named in honor of the former New York State Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim. The state bought up approx. 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of land in Brentwood and began construction in 1930. The hospital opened on October 1, 1931 as a close knit community with its own police and fire department, courts, post office, a LIRR station, power plant, potter's field, swinery, cemetery, water tower and houses for doctors, psychiatrists, and asylum administrators. A series of underground tunnels were used for routing steam pipes and other vital utilities. [[Pilgrim State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:07, 14 March 2011

Featured Article Of The Week

Pilgrim State Hospital


Pilgrimsh1.jpg

At the time it was opened, it was the largest hospital of any type in the world, its size has never been exceeded by any other facility, although today Pilgrim is far smaller than it used to be.

By 1900, overcrowding in city asylums was becoming a major problem that many tried to resolve. One answer was to put the mentally ill to work farming in a relaxing setting on what was then rural Long Island. The new state hospitals were dubbed "Farm Colonies" because of their live-and-work treatment programs, agricultural focus and patient facilities. However, these farm colonies, the Kings Park State Hospital (later known as the Kings Park Psychiatric Center) and the Central Islip State Hospital (later known as the Central Islip Psychiatric Center), quickly became overcrowded, just like the earlier institutions they were supposed to replace.

NY state responded by making plans for a third so-called farm colony, what was to become the Pilgrim State Hospital, named in honor of the former New York State Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim. The state bought up approx. 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of land in Brentwood and began construction in 1930. The hospital opened on October 1, 1931 as a close knit community with its own police and fire department, courts, post office, a LIRR station, power plant, potter's field, swinery, cemetery, water tower and houses for doctors, psychiatrists, and asylum administrators. A series of underground tunnels were used for routing steam pipes and other vital utilities. Click here for more...