Trenton State Hospital, New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, New Jersey (Lisa Sweet)
Lisa Sweet
For more pictures, visit: https://the-line-up.com/trenton-psychiatric-hospital
When was this "asylum" opened, and what did it look like? Did it follow Kirkbride's design? Paste images as appropriate - interior and exterior.
Trenton State Hospital is located in Trenton and Ewing, New Jersey. It was originally the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum and was founded in 1848 and the first mental hospital designed on the principle of the Kirkbride Plan.
Although Miss Dix presented memorials to the Legislatures of
22 different states and was the means of establishing many insti¬
tutions for the insane, she always spoke of the Trenton Asylum as
her “ first-born child.”
https://archive.org/stream/b29823870_0003/b29823870_0003_djvu.txt
What was this institution's original intent?
The New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum was intended for the care and maintenance of the insane.
And from https://antiquityechoes.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-jersey-state-lunatic-asylum.html#.W1YXfe4vxhE: The hospital was conceived and built with some of the most noble intentions to have ever graced a state funded establishment—simply to provide the best and most comforting aid possible to those of society who could not help themselves.
Who were the patients there? Do narratives of their experiences exist?
Patients were to be admitted to the asylum in due proportion from each county, by the court or any judge of the Common Pleas; it was made the duty of the overseers of the poor to make application to any judge, in case of an insane pauper, for authority to commit such pauper to the asylum; it was also made a duty of said judge to summon at least two respectable physicians and to investigate the case; and if the person examined was found to be a suitable patient for the asylum he was to be removed to and retained there at the expense of the county to which he belonged. No patient was to be admitted for a shorter period than six months.
What was the patients' experience like in that institution, and did that change over the course of the institution's history?
Under the Hospital's first superintendent, Dr. Horace A. Buttolph, the hospital admitted and treated 86 patients. In 1907, Dr. Henry Cotton became the medical director. Believing that infections were the key to mental illness, he had his staff remove teeth and various other body parts that might become infected from the hospital patients. Cotton's legacy of hundreds of fatalities and thousands of maimed and mutilated patients did not end with his leaving Trenton in 1930 or his death in 1933; in fact, removal of patients' teeth at the Trenton asylum was still the norm until 1960.
In 1912, a small tuberculosis pavilion was built on the state hospital property, along with a firehouse. Two years later an industrial building was constructed. Patients worked in the industrial buildings and a farm the other side of the property. The facility was now operating as a mostly self-sustaining community.
The development of tranquilizing drugs in the mid-1950s brought about important changes in the hospital treatment programs. Under proper medication, many patients who had been hospitalized for years were able to return to the community, while others became more amenable to psychotherapy and other treatment methods. For the first time in 100 years, the doors of many wards were unlocked, giving patients a degree of freedom in keeping with their progress toward recovery.
Did the institution, its services, and patients change over time?
Yes,the institution changed drastically over time. This comes directly from the current hospital website:
TPH believes in providing a holistic approach to patient care, from the initial assessment to the treatment of the human response to actual or potential health problems. We ensure the patient and the patient’s family competent, compassionate care as we collectively achieve individualized patient care goals. https://www.nj.gov/humanservices/dmhs/oshm/tph/
A far cry from removing teeth and other body parts to cure patients.
How many people lived, worked, and died there?
In 1848 there were accommodations for 200 patients.
Two wings were added to the main building in 1855. New additions were estimated to afford easy accommodation for 250 additional patients and their attendants.
On June 1, 1954, 4,237 persons were hospitalized at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.
In 1968, 14 years later, there were under 2,800 patients in residence (this reduction occurring in the face of an ever-increasing admission rate), and today the hospital has a capacity of 376 beds.
I was not able to find a number of employees for the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, but did find this: https://archive.org/stream/b29823870_0003/b29823870_0003_djvu.txt
The number of nurses and attendants was increased about 20
per cent and a full night service established.
THE NEW JERSEY STATE HOSPITAL
ASSISTANT PHYSICIANS.
Dr. J. B. Elliott. 1851-1855
Dr. M. E. Winchel. 1855-
Dr. Charles Hodge, Jr.. . 1857-1858
Dr. Henry F. Carriel. .. 1858-1869
Dr. John W. Ward. 1867-
Dr. Joseph Draper. 1869-1894
Dr. John C. Schenck. ... 1874-1876
Dr. John Kirby. 1876-
Dr. Charles P. Button.. 1876-1882
Dr. McDonald (tempo¬
rary) . 1876-
Dr. Harris G. Wetherell 1882-
Dr. Richard R. Rodgers 1885-
Dr. C. W. Kirby.
Dr. Chas. R. Burroughs. 1886-1891
Dr. Alexander F. H. Gale 1888-
Dr. John C. Felty. 1891-
Dr. William F. Jones... 1891-
Dr. Charles R. Allen.... 1899-
Dr. Paul L. Cort. 1899-
Dr. H. M. Weeks. 1897-1899
Dr. Edgar B. Funk-
houser. 1907-
Dr. William C. Sandy.. 1907-
Dr. Frederick S. Ham¬
mond . 1907-
Dr. Walter H. Taylor. .. 1907-
STEWARDS.
Caleb Sager . 1847-1876 William H. Earley. 1891-1896
Edmund White . 1876-1891
WARDENS.
William P. Hayes. 1896-1907 Samuel T. Atchley. 1907-
BOARD OF MANAGERS, 1915.
Luther M. Halsey, M. D., President.
A. D. Forst, Vice-president.
Scott Scammell, Secretary.
Harvey H. Johnson, Treasurer.
Stewart Paton, M. D. Joseph L. Moore.
Joseph Raycroft, M. D. William L. Black.
George T. Tracey, M. D. Alfred L. Ellis, M. D.
RESIDENT OFFICERS, 1915.
Henry A. Cotton, M. D.Medical director
John C. Felty, M. D.First assistant physician
Edgar B. Funkhouser, M. D.Second assistant physician
Clarence B. Farrar, M. D.Third assistant physician
Frederick S. Hammond, M. D. . .Fourth assistant physician and pathologist
J. Erwin Diehl, M. D.Fifth assistant physician
Lilia Ridout, M. D.Woman physician
W. W. Stevenson, M. D.Interne
Charles T. Roebuck.Interne
Dr. Cotton’s work left hundreds dead and thousands mutilated.
Were bad conditions ever exposed to the public? How?
A lawsuit was filed against the state DHS in 1977, due to the substandard living conditions for patients at the facility. The old buildings were showing their age, and there were numerous reports of physical and sexual abuse at the facility.
Also, in 2005 a book by psychiatric sociologist Andrew Scull was published. Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine discusses the work of controversial psychiatrist Henry Cotton at Trenton State Hospital in the 1920s.
Would you have wanted "treatment" in this institution?
No.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse:_A_Tragic_Tale_of_Megalomania_and_Modern_Medicine\
https://archive.org/stream/b29823870_0003/b29823870_0003_djvu.txt
Thank you for sharing all of this information. I found it difficult to find the number of patients treated, the number of people that worked there, and the number of patients that died. It is horrible to think about the lack of reporting. Danvers State Hospital had their own morgue and cemetery. I do not think many of the hundreds of deaths were accounted for. It is extremely sad because a lot of the times the patients did not have family or friends. Danvers State Hospital was opened in 1887 and closed in 1992, when there was finally a report of abuse in 1989. There is over a century of patients that were never accounted for. It is horrifying to think about that.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another example of good intentions that somehow turned out to be a very bad situation for people with mental illness. Yet I wonder why families did not complain about the conditions? I worked at BMHI for a summer in 1972 and found that few families maintained contact with their relatives who were placed at BMHI. The faclity is now named for Dorothea Dix.
ReplyDeleteNancy
The teeth pulling and removal of body parts sounds absolutely gruesome. It is hard for me to wrap my head around someone sincerely believing that removing "toxic" body parts would help improve someone's mental illness. But clearly that was how mental illness was perceived at that time. Interesting update, Nancy.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was researching various asylums for this assignment, I noticed that many asylums either started as a tuberculosis sanitarium or added tuberculosis wings to an insane asylum during the 1800s. Most asylums seemed to just be a collection point for those that were beyond the hope of science and medicine for that time. I cannot imagine the horror of contracting tuberculosis and then being housed in deplorable conditions with people who may be experiencing psychotic breaks.
ReplyDelete