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Signs
of change
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Hospital Band |
During the mid 1880s Gerhard was
hard at work proposing major changes
to the hospital. However life for
the patient went on much as they did
in previous years. In 1885 a brass
band of eleven pieces was organized,
it was comprised of patients and
attendants and was directed by a
physician. Also in 1885 the male
reading room was converted into a
gymnasium and quickly became a great
source of pleasure and benefit to
some of the patients. Because
Gerhard felt that the Main
Building
needed to be replaced he did not ask for
much money to be spent on the old
wards. However by 1888 the building
was in such poor shape that he had
the wards repainted, new carpet laid
in the hallways, and overhauled much
of the furniture. More and more
patient labor was used under the
supervision of the Gerhard. This
labor was thought the be therapeutic
for the patients and gave then a
sense of pride and meaning. The
labor also greatly helped the
hospital, which would otherwise have
to spend precious funds contracting
outside labor. During 1888 the work
on the pleasure grounds alone was
estimated to of saved the hospital
$6,312.50. Female patients did much
of the work in the kitchen and the laundry. |
In 1888 a big change occurred
in the way meals were consumed at
the hospital. All meals would now
be consumed in a new central dinning room.
Attendants would sit at the head of
the tables with the patients and they
would all eat "family
style", each helping the other. The
patients were required to remain at
the table until all were done. Upon
the completion of the meal the
patients would retire to
dayrooms in their respective wards. This new method was not
only seen as an improvement over
eating in small ward dinning rooms,
but it also allowed for a central
kitchen and food storage. An
additional benefit to the new
central dinning room was that all
the old ward dining rooms were then
converted into dormitories for the
growing number of patients.
| In
1886 the new
North and South Branch
buildings were completed.
The Main Building did not
have adequate housing for
noisy and violent patients.
The best that could be done
was to place them in the
wards furthest from the
administration section. But the noisy patients
would still be a constant disruption
for other patients who had a
better chance at being cured. These
new branch buildings would house
the more disturbed, violent,
and noisy patients, with
males in the North Branch
and females in the South
Branch. Later, these
buildings would become
Male
& Female 9 & 10 for chronic
patients. The new buildings also increased
the hospital capacity by three
hundred and twenty. They were connected to the Main
Building via an
above ground tunnel, which also
connected the
fan
house and storage building to
the rear of the administration
section. A new
Boiler House and Laundry
building was built in 1887. |
South Branch |
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| In
1891 the patient population passed
the 1,000 mark, also this year
Gerhard decided to return to private
practice and resigned from his
position as superintendent. In his
last annual repot Gerhard summarized
his tenure at the hospital. "During
the past eleven years we have
fortunately been exempt from loss by
fire. The value of the property has
also greatly increased. At the
beginning of the decade we had one
hundred and twenty-nine acres of
land; now we have two hundred and
twenty-six, and there is an
appropriation of $20,000 available
for purchase of additional land. The
grounds of the hospital have been
greatly improved and beautified, at
moderate expense, and much of the
labor was preformed by patients. The
sewerage of the entire institution
has been rebuilt; the water closets
in the old buildings have all been
reconstructed and greatly improved
and the buildings, in most
particular, are in better condition
than they were ten years ago. |
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Ice House |
The
capacity of the hospital has been
increased three hundred and twenty
beds by the erection of
branch buildings, one for each
sex. A new
boiler house has been
constructed, including coal vault,
machine shop,
laundry, and accommodations for
a number of employees. The
outbuildings, including the barn,
house for the steward, stable for
driving horses and the gardener's
house have been greatly improved;
and the green house and ice house
entirely rebuilt. The institution is
in sound financial condition, no
bills remain unpaid and the
treasurer has in hand $14,349.80 for
current expenses." In one last
appeal to the legislature, Gerhard
again wrote a letter calling for a
new building to be built. On
November 1, 1891 Henry L. Orth
became the third superintendent of
the hospital. |
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