Difference between revisions of "Racine County Asylum"

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| opened = 1889
 
| opened = 1889
 
| closed = 1970
 
| closed = 1970
| demolished =  
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| demolished = 1989
 
| current_status = [[Demolished Institution|Demolished]]
 
| current_status = [[Demolished Institution|Demolished]]
 
| building_style = [[Single Building Institutions|Single Building]]
 
| building_style = [[Single Building Institutions|Single Building]]
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==History==
 
==History==
The Racine County Hospitals and Home provided care for patients in three types of units -- the County Home, County Hospital, and Hospital for Mental Diseases. County homes had their origin in the poorhouses which were created by the Wisconsin poorhouse law enacted in 1849. Poorhouses were managed by a Superintendent of the Poor who was subject to the direction and control of the County Board of Supervisors. Early poorhouses were often repositories for social outcasts and indigents where little effort was made to segregate criminals, the insane, orphans, the aged, and the physically disabled. The recognition of the deplorable conditions in poorhouses by the State Board of Charities and Reform and the gradual movement throughout the United States to establish more sophisticated public relief programs, changed the role of poorhouses to providing care mainly for aged indigents and seriously ill persons unable to live alone and lacking relatives willing or able to provide a home for them.
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The Asylum for the Chronically Insane was built in December of 1889. Most Racine residents simply referred to it as Racine County Insane Asylum, and over the years it went through other names like Gatliff Asylum and High Ridge Hospitals. Patients included not only the insane, but also the elderly, immigrants, and poor. By 1904 the asylum held 133 patients when it suddenly burned down in a fire. All of the patients were able to escape mostly unharmed and their records were saved by staff. Within a year the building was already rebuilt. The County Home, better known as the poor farm, moved to the same property as the asylum around the early 1900s. Some of the patients were occasionally transferred from the asylum to the poor farm when they were able to show that they could do well in a less structured environment.
  
  
  
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==Images==
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
 
File:WIracine1908.jpg
 
File:WIracine1908.jpg

Latest revision as of 17:37, 27 May 2021

Racine County Asylum
Opened 1889
Closed 1970
Demolished 1989
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Single Building
Location Racine, WI
Alternate Names
  • Racine County Insane Asylum
  • Racine County Hospital for Mental Diseases
  • Gatliff Asylum
  • High Ridge




History[edit]

The Asylum for the Chronically Insane was built in December of 1889. Most Racine residents simply referred to it as Racine County Insane Asylum, and over the years it went through other names like Gatliff Asylum and High Ridge Hospitals. Patients included not only the insane, but also the elderly, immigrants, and poor. By 1904 the asylum held 133 patients when it suddenly burned down in a fire. All of the patients were able to escape mostly unharmed and their records were saved by staff. Within a year the building was already rebuilt. The County Home, better known as the poor farm, moved to the same property as the asylum around the early 1900s. Some of the patients were occasionally transferred from the asylum to the poor farm when they were able to show that they could do well in a less structured environment.


Images[edit]