Eastern Hospital for Insane

  The act making the first appropriation for the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane was approved by Gov. Shelby M. Cullom, May 25, 1877.

Seven commissioners were appointed to select a suitable site in that portion of the State east of the third principal meridian and included between parallels of latitude thirty-nine and forty-one and one-half." None of them were from within the territory thus described. From all of the tracts offered, they chose, August 2, 1877, the " Cowgill farm," on the Kankakee river, adjoining the town on the south, and lying east of the Illinois Central road. This farm contained two hundred and fifty-one acres, and the price paid was $14,000, or about $56 per acre. Trustees were then appointed, who employed Maj. James R. Willett, of Chicago, as architect and superintendent of construction. With the advice and assistance of Mr. Wines, the Secretary of the Board of Charities, Major Willett prepared plans which were accepted and adopted in January ,1878. It was uncertain whether the detached ward system would meet with favor from the trustees and the Legislature. For this reason the center and rear buildings, with the wings, were drawn after the old style; but the grounds were laid out with reference to the creation of a village for the insane, and Mr. Wines' conception has been since carried out.

The act authorized the commissioners of the penitentiary at Joliet to bid for this work. The bids were opened at Kankakee March 19, 1878, and the penitentiary commissioners presented the lowest bid, which was accepted. They sub-let the entire contract, except the cut-stone work, which they desired to secure for the convicts.

In August, 1878, the International Prison Congress convened at Stockholm, in Sweden, The Governor of Illinois was authorized, by a joint resolution of the General Assembly, to appoint a special commissioner from this State to attend it. Governor Cullom appointed Mr. Wines. One of the ends sought in this appointment was to enable him to make such studies of European hospitals and asylums for the insane as would be of service in planning the new hospital at Kankakee.

A controversy over the "propositions" of the Association of Medical Superintendents of Institutions for the Insane in the United States and Canada, which were adopted in 1851, had been in progress for many years, It was apparent to many of the friends of the insane that those propositions, admirably adapted as they were to the small, curative hospitals to which they were meant to apply, had proven a cast-iron fetter upon any real advance in hospital construction, and that the Country had outgrown them. But they were regarded with a reverence which almost savored of superstition, and dissent from them in any particular was regarded in the specialty as heresy. It required no small amount of courage to brave the hostility of the entire profession, and to risk reputation in the effort to demonstrate the feasibility of an experiment the failure of which was loudly proclaimed in advance, especially because here was no actual precedent to serve as a guide in the new departure. But Mr. Wines' observations at Gheel in Belgium, at Clermont in France, at Cheadle in England, and at Cupar-Fife and Lenzie in Scotland, gave him the courage demanded, and the General Assembly in 1879 made an experimental appropriation of $30,000 for the construction and completion of detached wards to accommodate not less than eighty patients. Thirty eight thousand dollars for detached wards was appropriated in 1881, and $400,000 more in 1883, as the Legislature saw the utility of the new method and acquired confidence in it.

This undertaking marks an epoch in the history of the care and treatment of the insane throughout the world. Its success shattered the too exclusive adhesion to Dr. Kirkbride's "propositions," and opened the way for other experiments in architectural construction in many of the. States, in nearly all of which the Kankakee model has been more or less closely followed. It has had also a great indirect influence in the way of diminishing mechanical restraint, promoting the freedom of patients, and increasing the amount of useful occupation in hospitals constructed on the Kirkbride plan, much of which is due to the patience, intelligence, humanity and consecration of Dr. Richard S. Dewey, the excellent Medical Superintendent of the Kankakee Hospital.

The plan adopted embraces, as its central feature, the "hospital proper," that is, a small center building for the accommodation of a limited number of officers, and one wing for patients of each sex; each wing built in two, sections, containing one ward on each floor of each section, or twelve wards in all-six for men and six for women. These wards are large, airy and light, with single dormitories and pleasant alcoves, used as dayrooms, dining room, bathroom, etc. The windows are barred, and the doors have spring- locks, with bolts on the doors of all the sleeping apartments. This entire building is fireproof, having brick arches turned over all the rooms as well as over the corridors. It is heated by indirect radiation from steam-coils in the basement. The rear buildings constitute the axis, or centerline, of the entire establishment, and mark the separation of the sexes throughout. The further extension of the wings connected with the center building is blocked by roads. Two broad avenues, parallel with a line at right angles to the line of the wings, present the appearance of village streets, bordered with sidewalks, and shaded by elms and maples. On each side of each of these two streets, the land is laid off in lots for building purposes. Along the side of the road are laid the sewer pipes, also the gas and water mains, connected by branches with the detached wards. The streets are lighted, and fireplugs have been provided in case of a conflagration. The general appearance of the detached wards is similar to that of an English insane asylum upon the " block" plan, except that the wards are wholly detached, and not connected by corridors, as in England. They face each other, on opposite sides of the street, and resemble, to some extent, ordinary dwellings, with home-like surroundings, such as covered porticoes ill front, shrubbery and flowers, the design being to get rid to the utmost possible extent, of the air of an institution or any resemblance to ordinary asylum grounds. To a certain extent, they resemble the French asylum wards-in this, that they are all two stories in eight, and are so planned as to provide, in some form, day rooms upon the lower floor and dormitories above. But the proportion of angle dormitories is smaller than that usually found in American Hospitals for the insane. A third street, running north and south, connects the two just described, at their western extremity. The number of detached wards now built is about twenty, with a capacity for seventeen hundred patients; in addition to which there are any other detached buildings, such as the Superintendent's residence, an amusement hall, bath-houses, general storehouse, quarters for employees, a general dining-room, patients' workshops, etc.

Dr. Dewey, the very accomplished and devoted Superintendent, under whose guidance and inspiration the entire plan has been brought in detail, since the date of his appointment, when but little had yet been done, thus admirably states the special aims of this establishment:

This Hospital, while seeking the good results usually accomplished by such institutions is especially committed to a course of careful experimentation and effort in the direction of determining-

First: How moderate the expense of erecting suitable buildings for the insane can be made.

Second: Whether occupation which will be beneficial in every sense cannot be secured for a majority of the inmates.

Third: To what extent the rigor of confinement and restraint can be removed, and a natural and somewhat domestic mode of life be introduced among our patients.

The trustees met And organized, August 8, 1877. Major Willett was elected architect, September 13. All of the buildings have been planned by him, and the Kankakee hospital may be regarded, in years to come, as ill a sense his monument. The plans were approved by the Governor and by the State Commissioners of Public Charities, January 9, 1878. The bids for construction were opened March 19, and the work began soon after.

Dr. Richard Dewey was elected Superintendent at a meeting held June 13, 1879 and not until after the first appropriation of $30,000 had been made for detached wards.

Mr. W. L. Cleveland, of Chicago, was employed to layout the grounds.

All the contracts for building, since the first, have been awarded, after due competition, to Mr. James Lillie.

The Hospital was occupied by the officers and employees, November 25, 1879, and the first patients were admitted, December 4.

In March, 1884, a purchase of one hundred and sixty additional acres of land was made, for $10,000, The Legislature, in 1885, granted $3,600 with which to buy a tract of seventeen acres for a railroad switch connecting the grounds' with the Illinois Central road, and $15,000 for more farm land; the trustees bought three hundred and twenty-eight acres adjoining the hospital farm on the south. The Hospital now owns eight hundred acres, but needs still more in consequence of the great number of patients cared for.

On the 18th Of January ,1885, at 4 o'clock in the morning, a fire broke out in the south infirmary, heated by furnaces, in which seventeen patients lost their lives by suffocation. This unfortunate accident led to the perfecting of what is perhaps the most complete system of fire protection now to be found in any institution in the United States, in the development of which one of the assistant physicians, Dr. Prince, formerly connected with the Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol, rendered most valuable assistance.

In this Hospital a lady physician was first honored with a place on the medical staff, when Dr. Delia Howe was appointed, in February, 1885, and given charge of the infirmary for women.

A uniform dress for attendants was prescribed, in May ,1886. In November following, a training school for attendants was organized, which has ever since been in successful operation. Certificates are given to graduates.

Workshops for the patients were opened in 1887, and have since been enlarged. About one hundred male patients and eighty female patients are now employed in them. During the past two years, Dr, Dewey reports seventy-three percent of the entire number of patients usefully employed in some capacity. In their report for 1890, the trustees say: "A great variety of useful trades are in successful operation, which tend to increase the self-sustaining power of .the Hospital. All the brooms, baskets, rugs, mats, harness, tin ware, mattresses, socks and rag carpets, that are used in the institution are produced here from the raw material; and the raw material itself, of the brooms, baskets and mats is also grown on its farm. Almost the entire supply of underclothing for the men and women, outer clothing for the women, and a good share of the men's jean suits, are made in the institution. A scroll saw, a turning-lathe, a blacksmith's forge, and a small printing press are kept in constant operation by the patients. All repairing of boots and shoes is done by them; also the repairing and regulating of clocks. Three or four shoemakers, two tinners, one harness-maker, one clock-tinker, one or two typesetters, one copperplate engraver, two or three tailors, and one upholsterer and mattress-maker, are constantly at work. Rag-carpet making employs six or eight patients, and preparing raw material in various ways as many more."

Great progress has also been made in the removal of unnecessary restrictions upon the freedom of the insane, by the non-use of mechanical restraints, the institution of open wards, and the paroling of patients.

In 1892 the Hospital received a very valuable gift of about eighty oil paintings, presented by the artist, G. P. A. Healy-all his own work. For this gift the institution is very largely indebted to the personal friendship of Mr. Healy for the President of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Ezra B. McCagg.

A complete account of this very interesting and well-managed institution, in all its details, would take more space than can here be given it. It is a model and an inspiration. Since it was opened, in 1879, others have been erected on the same general plan, in the United States and Canada, as follows:

1885. Jamestown, North Dakota.

1888. Toledo, Ohio.

1888. Logansport, Indiana.

1889. Central Islip, New York.

1890. Richmond, Indiana.

1890. Ogdensburg, New York.

1890. Mimico, near Toronto. Ontario.

The entire amount appropriated by the General Assembly, from the beginning for the use of this Hospital, has been $4,066,119, namely: $2,410,250 for ordinary expenses or maintenance, and $1,655,869 for other purposes, chiefly on account of construction and repairs. In view of the predictions freely made that the institution on the detached ward system would be more expensive, both for construction and maintenance, than one on the Kirkbride or corridor plan, it will be of interest and value to submit the following comparative statement: The Hospital at Elgin with a capacity of one thousand beds has cost the State of Illinois, in special appropriations of all sorts $1,091,746, or $1,091.75 per bed. The Hospital at Anna, with a capacity of nine hundred and fifty beds has cost $1,054,212, or $1,109.76 per bed. The Hospital at Kankakee, with a capacity of two thousand beds, has cost $827.93 per bed. In respect to maintenance; the per capita cost at Elgin, from the opening of the Hospital to date, has been $197.71 or $116.84, net; at Anna $181.38, or $163.27, net; at Kankakee, $169, or $155.64, net. The utility of a State Board of Public Charities in Illinois is demonstrated by the saving to the Public Treasury effected in this single item of construction of one institution, which amounts, as compared with the Elgin standard, to $527,640, or with the Anna standard, to $563,660 in either case more than four times the total cost of the State Board for twenty-four years' continuous service.

Much of the credit of the successful financial record of this Hospital belongs to Mr. John a. Burt, the business manager, and should be accorded to him.

The trustees have been as follows:

John H. Clough, Chicago, 1878 to 1882.

William F. Murphy, 1879 to 1881.

William Reddick Ottawa, * 1879 to 1885.

John L. Donovan, Watseka, 1881 to 1893.

Ezra B. McCagg, Chicago, 1882, to 1893.

Lemuel Milk, Kankakee, 1885 to 1889.

Walter W. Todd, Kankakee, 1889 to 1893.

The following gentlemen and ladies have been employed as assistant physicians:

Dr. Harold N. Mayer, 1880 to 1882.

Dr. Henry M. Bannister, 1880 to 1892.

Dr. Elmore S. Pettyjohn, 1882 to 1885.

Dr. Cassius D. Westcott, 1884 to 1886.

Dr. Delia Howe, 1885 to 1888.

Dr. L. H. Prince, 1885 to 1887.

Dr. A. L. Warner, 1886 to 1893.

Dr. Ludwig Hektoen, 1887,

Dr. M. M. Crocker, 1887 to 1889.

Dr. Edward Howard 1887 to 1889.

Dr. Anne C. Burnet, 1888 to 1893.

Dr. L. R. Head, 1888.

Dr. B. L. Riese, 1888 to 1890.

Dr. J. P. Houston, 1889.

Dr. L. L. Skelton, 1889 to 189

Dr. J. Chambers Dodds, 1889 to 1891.

Dr. Samuel Dodds, 1890 to 1893.

Dr. Charles H. Bradley, 1891 to 1893.

Dr. George Boody, 1891 to 1893

Dr. T. R. Foster, 1892 to 1893

Dr. Dewey, for fourteen years the able head of this Hospital, has recently been removed for purely political reasons, and has been succeeded by Dr. S. V. Clevenger of Chicago.

Compiled by Abandoned Asylum 2003
Please credit this site if you use the information contained

Committee on State Charitable Institutions, Brief History of the Charitable Institutions
of the State of Illinois, 1893.