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

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|Title= Eastern State Hospital Lexington
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|Title= Northville State Hospital
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|Image= Northville.jpg
 
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|Body= On February 15, 1816, the Kentucky General Assembly passed an act establishing a public hospital in Fayette County. The act incorporated a group of citizens, the “Contributors of the Fayette Hospital,” who wished to erect a building at their own expense to serve as a hospital for the accommodation of “lunatics” as well as other “sick poor.” The act gave the Contributors the right to establish a committee, elect officers, raise money to purchase a piece of land in or near Lexington, and to contract for the construction of a building to serve as the hospital (An act for founding, 1816). The Contributors meet on March 1, 1816 and elected a building committee consisting of Andrew McCalla, Sterling Allen, Stephen Chipley, Thomas January,and Richard Higgins. McCalla was appointed chairman (Fayette Hospital, 1816). In an open letter in the Kentucky Reporter on April 17, 1816, the Committee presented their mission and asked for assistance. They noted that there were many “poor, disabled, and infirm members of society” without the aid of medicine who with the assistance that could be provided by a “Public Hospital,” might become useful to themselves, their families, and society. They also noted that “lunatics,” who have no “rich relatives” to care for them, “roam at large through the country...” and in many instances “endanger the lives of other members of society.” The best remedy, they suggested, was the erection of a public hospital. They argued that the hospital was not only their best chance at a cure but also a means by which physicians could acquire “superior skill” by treating them. Finally, they declared that “society itself would be made more secure against the wild and desperate actions of lunatics, if provision was made to contain them within its walls.” The Committee concluded the letter by requesting that “ALL” people of Kentucky contribute to the support of the hospital (To the people of Kentucky, 1816).
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|Body= Consisting of 20 buildings spread out over 453 of wooded, sometimes swampy land, Northville State Hospital was lauded as one of the best psychiatric facilities in the country when it opened. The first patients moved into the main building on January 1, 1952. and Dr. Philip Brown was selected as the first superintendent. One of the buildings on its campus later housed the Northville Residential Training Center, a separate institution. Not long after, the state was considering the small wooded piece of land between this institution and Hawthorne Center to place the Maxey Boys Training School, but the plan was rejected, and Maxey was built in Whitmore Lake.
  
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Their early efforts must have been effective for not long after their incorporation, the Building Committee purchased the “Sinking Spring” property on which the present hospital now stands (Perrin 1882: 391). On June 30, 1817, the corner-stone of the “Fayette Hospital” building was laid in the presence of a large group of spectators. The oration was given by Henry Clay, U.S. Representative from Kentucky. In the corner-stone were deposited the newspapers of Lexington for that week, some silver and copper coins, two publications in favor of the institution.  [[Eastern State Hospital Lexington|Click here for more...]]
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The hospital was almost completely self-sufficient with its own laundry, kitchen, gymnasium, movie theater, swimming pool, and bowling alley, powered by a steam plant that supplied electricity and heat through a network of underground tunnels. In the 1970s, the state began to trim the mental health budget, closing some hospitals and reducing programs offered as doctors began relying on medicine and drugs to treat symptoms. Crowding became an issue at Northville, as the facility was regularly treating over 1,000 patients, but had only been designed for 650. Some patients had to sleep in the gymnasium until more rooms could be arranged.  
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In May 2003, the remaining 239 patients were transferred to other state facilities. The last patient left on May 16th, 2003, after which a skeleton staff began winding down operations. Detroit-based Adamo Group demolition company began what was expected to be a four-month demolition process in April, 2018 & was completed early 2019.  [[Northville State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 04:43, 10 December 2023

Featured Article Of The Week

Northville State Hospital


Northville.jpg

Consisting of 20 buildings spread out over 453 of wooded, sometimes swampy land, Northville State Hospital was lauded as one of the best psychiatric facilities in the country when it opened. The first patients moved into the main building on January 1, 1952. and Dr. Philip Brown was selected as the first superintendent. One of the buildings on its campus later housed the Northville Residential Training Center, a separate institution. Not long after, the state was considering the small wooded piece of land between this institution and Hawthorne Center to place the Maxey Boys Training School, but the plan was rejected, and Maxey was built in Whitmore Lake.

The hospital was almost completely self-sufficient with its own laundry, kitchen, gymnasium, movie theater, swimming pool, and bowling alley, powered by a steam plant that supplied electricity and heat through a network of underground tunnels. In the 1970s, the state began to trim the mental health budget, closing some hospitals and reducing programs offered as doctors began relying on medicine and drugs to treat symptoms. Crowding became an issue at Northville, as the facility was regularly treating over 1,000 patients, but had only been designed for 650. Some patients had to sleep in the gymnasium until more rooms could be arranged.

In May 2003, the remaining 239 patients were transferred to other state facilities. The last patient left on May 16th, 2003, after which a skeleton staff began winding down operations. Detroit-based Adamo Group demolition company began what was expected to be a four-month demolition process in April, 2018 & was completed early 2019. Click here for more...

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