Editing St Elizabeths Hospital
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| architecture_style = Gothic Revival, Gothic | | architecture_style = Gothic Revival, Gothic | ||
| peak_patient_population = 7,000 | | peak_patient_population = 7,000 | ||
− | | alternate_names = | + | | alternate_names = |
− | + | Governor Hospital for the Insane<BR> | |
− | + | United States Government Hospital for the Insane | |
}} | }} | ||
+ | {| | ||
+ | [[Image:St Elizabeth WestCampus.jpg|thumb|right|280px|The west campus]] | ||
+ | [[Image:St Elizabeth EastCampus.jpg|thumb|right|280px|The east campus]] | ||
+ | |} | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
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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.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192_2.html</ref> 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.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192_3.html</ref> It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. | 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.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192_2.html</ref> 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.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192_3.html</ref> 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. | 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. | ||
− | The creation of the hospital was due very largely to the activity of Dorothea L. | + | The creation of the hospital was due very largely to the activity of Dorothea L. Lix. She grew up with her own pen the outlines of the organic act establishing the institution, and virtually named its first superintendent , Dr. C. H. Nicholas. During the latter part of her life Miss dix spent much of her time at the hospital, where quarters were always reserved for her, and the little desk upon which she drew up the original act creating the hospital stands in the board room in the main building. |
On the first of July, 1855, the President named a board of visitors, as follows: Benjamin F. Bohrer, M. D., president; William W. Corcoran, Jacob Gideon, Professor Grafton Tyler, M. D., Daniel Ratcliff, Professor Thomas Miller, M. D., William Whelan, M. D., U.S.N., Robert C. Wood, M. D., U.S.A., and Rev. P. D. Gurley, D. D. The make-up of the board has, in the main, followed the plan of the first board, namely, to name as members of the board on representative of each of the classes card for in the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, usually the acting or the retired surgeon-general of these several services, a lay physician, a lawyer, a clergyman, a layman, and in recent years two women. | On the first of July, 1855, the President named a board of visitors, as follows: Benjamin F. Bohrer, M. D., president; William W. Corcoran, Jacob Gideon, Professor Grafton Tyler, M. D., Daniel Ratcliff, Professor Thomas Miller, M. D., William Whelan, M. D., U.S.N., Robert C. Wood, M. D., U.S.A., and Rev. P. D. Gurley, D. D. The make-up of the board has, in the main, followed the plan of the first board, namely, to name as members of the board on representative of each of the classes card for in the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, usually the acting or the retired surgeon-general of these several services, a lay physician, a lawyer, a clergyman, a layman, and in recent years two women. | ||
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The original main building was built from brick made on the place, and in architectural style is a modification of the Kirkbride plan, each wing receding for the center, in echelon. The building itself is in the collegiate Gothic style. This main building was several years in building and wings were added to it from time to time. Other construction, however, was undertaken in the meant time, and shortly after the opening of the hospital, during fiscal year 1855-6, a building was opened for the colored insane, which the superintendent state in his report he believed to be the "first and only special provision for the suitable care of the African when afflicted with insanity which has yet been made in any part of the world." | The original main building was built from brick made on the place, and in architectural style is a modification of the Kirkbride plan, each wing receding for the center, in echelon. The building itself is in the collegiate Gothic style. This main building was several years in building and wings were added to it from time to time. Other construction, however, was undertaken in the meant time, and shortly after the opening of the hospital, during fiscal year 1855-6, a building was opened for the colored insane, which the superintendent state in his report he believed to be the "first and only special provision for the suitable care of the African when afflicted with insanity which has yet been made in any part of the world." | ||
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Here is the first mention of the name of St. Elizabeth as applied to the hospital. It was taken from the name of the tract of land upon which the hospital stood, which has been known ever since the settlement of the country as the St. Elizabeth tract. The application of the name St. Elizabeth to the hospital was the result of the disinclination of many of the soldiers who were not insane to have the institution in which they were temporarily resident called the Government Hospital for the Insane. In January of 1863, at the request of the Surgeon-General of the army, certain rooms of the hospital were set aside for the convenience of one of the manufacturers of artificial legs, and soldiers who had lost a limb by amputation in any one of the district of neighboring hospitals might, if they wished, be transferred to the St. Elizabeth Hospital as soon as the stump was healed, to be fitted with an artificial leg. These were the men who, while resident in the hospital and getting their artificial limbs adjusted, did not wish to be considered patients in an institution for the insane, and so St. Elizabeth Hospital came to be a name applied to the institution. The St. Elizabeth referred to is the Hungarian saint about whom many legends of kindness to the sick and afflicted folks were written, and so the name came to be retained because of its singular appropriateness. | Here is the first mention of the name of St. Elizabeth as applied to the hospital. It was taken from the name of the tract of land upon which the hospital stood, which has been known ever since the settlement of the country as the St. Elizabeth tract. The application of the name St. Elizabeth to the hospital was the result of the disinclination of many of the soldiers who were not insane to have the institution in which they were temporarily resident called the Government Hospital for the Insane. In January of 1863, at the request of the Surgeon-General of the army, certain rooms of the hospital were set aside for the convenience of one of the manufacturers of artificial legs, and soldiers who had lost a limb by amputation in any one of the district of neighboring hospitals might, if they wished, be transferred to the St. Elizabeth Hospital as soon as the stump was healed, to be fitted with an artificial leg. These were the men who, while resident in the hospital and getting their artificial limbs adjusted, did not wish to be considered patients in an institution for the insane, and so St. Elizabeth Hospital came to be a name applied to the institution. The St. Elizabeth referred to is the Hungarian saint about whom many legends of kindness to the sick and afflicted folks were written, and so the name came to be retained because of its singular appropriateness. | ||
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Decline began in the 1950s. Massive institutions came to be seen as a problem, not the solution and mental hospitals began to deinstitutionalize patients. The idea was that they could get personalized treatment in community-based facilities and that new psychiatric drugs would allow them near-normal lives. Many patients ended up homeless after leaving the hospital. In 1987, the federal government deeded St. Elizabeths to the District of Columbia to come up with an alternate use. But the District's mental health program was in receivership, and long-range planning was not a high priority. By 1996, the remaining 850 patients had to cope with medicine shortages, a lack of equipment and a heating system that failed so frequently patients went weeks without showers. Life at St. Elizabeths had regressed to a condition disturbingly similar to those that inspired the creation of the hospital in the first place. The last patients were moved from the west campus in 2002. All became quiet in the once-magnificent center building, the ghostly structure slowly succumbing to time and neglect. It was estimated to cost $50 million to $100 million to bring the buildings on the west campus back up to code. The District of Columbia tried several times to sell the hospital, but each time the deal fell through. With no answer in sight, the federal government took over the west campus again in 2004. The General Services Administration began nailing plywood over windows and shoring up roofs until a tenant could be found. | Decline began in the 1950s. Massive institutions came to be seen as a problem, not the solution and mental hospitals began to deinstitutionalize patients. The idea was that they could get personalized treatment in community-based facilities and that new psychiatric drugs would allow them near-normal lives. Many patients ended up homeless after leaving the hospital. In 1987, the federal government deeded St. Elizabeths to the District of Columbia to come up with an alternate use. But the District's mental health program was in receivership, and long-range planning was not a high priority. By 1996, the remaining 850 patients had to cope with medicine shortages, a lack of equipment and a heating system that failed so frequently patients went weeks without showers. Life at St. Elizabeths had regressed to a condition disturbingly similar to those that inspired the creation of the hospital in the first place. The last patients were moved from the west campus in 2002. All became quiet in the once-magnificent center building, the ghostly structure slowly succumbing to time and neglect. It was estimated to cost $50 million to $100 million to bring the buildings on the west campus back up to code. The District of Columbia tried several times to sell the hospital, but each time the deal fell through. With no answer in sight, the federal government took over the west campus again in 2004. The General Services Administration began nailing plywood over windows and shoring up roofs until a tenant could be found. | ||
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</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
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== Links & Additional Information == | == Links & Additional Information == | ||
*[http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/saint-elizabeths/ St Elizabeths @ Kirkbride Buildings.com] | *[http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/saint-elizabeths/ St Elizabeths @ Kirkbride Buildings.com] | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elizabeths_Hospital St Elizabeths @ Wikipedia] | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elizabeths_Hospital St Elizabeths @ Wikipedia] | ||
+ | *[http://dmh.dc.gov/dmh/cwp/view,a,3,q,516064.asp DC Department of Mental Health] | ||
*[http://www.allfortheunion.com/ste/history.htm A Detailed History of the Hospital] | *[http://www.allfortheunion.com/ste/history.htm A Detailed History of the Hospital] | ||
*[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192.html A Washington Post Article on the Hospital] | *[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601192.html A Washington Post Article on the Hospital] | ||
+ | *[http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1812&ResourceType=District National Historic Landmark Entry] | ||
+ | *[http://www.urbanatrophy.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=49 Photos of the Kirkbride Building (from 2007)] | ||
*[http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/elizabeths.html Historic Medical Sites in the Washington, DC Area] | *[http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/elizabeths.html Historic Medical Sites in the Washington, DC Area] | ||
− | *[ | + | *[http://www.stelizabethswestcampus.com/ A Website Dedicated to the Historic West Campus] |
− | *[http:// | + | *[http://dmh.dc.gov/dmh/cwp/view,a,1407,q,640055.asp Photos of the Construction of the new Hospital (2006-2009)] |
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[[Category:Kirkbride Buildings]] | [[Category:Kirkbride Buildings]] | ||
[[Category:Active Institution]] | [[Category:Active Institution]] | ||
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