Eastern State Hospital, located in Williamsburg, Virginia was the first public facility in the United States constructed solely for the care and treatment of the mentally ill, and remains in operation today. Nickname: The Burg Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area  Ranked 35th  - Total 42,793 sq mi (110,862 km²)  - Width 200 miles (320 km)  - Length 430 miles (690 km)  - % water 7. ... Mental illness (or emotional disability, cognitive dysfunction) is a broad generic label for a category of illnesses that may include affective or emotional instability, behavioral dysregulation, and/or cognitive dysfunction or impairment. ...

The Hospital's rebuilt original 1773 building as it stands today in Williamsburg, Virginia

Establishment

The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds, as the facility was first known, was established by act of the Virginia colonial legislature on June 4, 1770. The act, which intended to “Make Provision for the Support and Maintenance of Ideots, Lunaticks, and other Persons of unsound Minds,” authorized the House of Burgesses to appoint a fifteen-man Court Of Directors to oversee the future hospital’s operations and admissions. In 1771, the Court, comprised of such Williamsburg dignitaries as George Wythe, Thomas Nelson, Jr., John Blair, and John Randolph, authorized contractor Benjamin Powell to construct a two-story building on Francis Street near the College of William and Mary capable of housing twenty-four patients. The design of the grounds included "yards for patients to walk and take the Air in" as well as provisions for a fence to be built to keep the patients out of the nearby town. The Virginia General Assembly is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state. ... June 4 is the 155th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (156th in leap years), with 210 days remaining. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... George Wythe George Wythe (1726–June 8, 1806), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Virginia and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. ... Thomas Nelson Early American Pioneer Thomas Nelson Jr US Statesman Thomas Nelson (Publishing House) Categories: Disambiguation ... John Blair (1732–August 31, 1800) was an American politician, Founding Father, and Patriot. ... John Randolph (1727–January 31, 1784) was an Amertican lawyer in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. ... The College of William and Mary (also known as William and Mary or W&M) is a small public university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. ...

Early years

At the time of the first admittance to the hospital on October 12, 1773, the facility was meant only to treat and discharge the curable mentally ill and to confine those who were a threat to themselves and others. Thus, the public hospital did not accept the chronic and harmless mentally ill, for they were not proper candidates for admission. There were three people originally staffing the hospital: a keeper, a matron (for female patients), a physician, and a few slaves to care for the daily upkeep of the hospital and its patients. The keeper of the hospital was James Galt, and his wife was the hospital matron. James Galt had previously been the keeper of the Williamsburg Public Gaol, and was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the public hospital. John de Sequeyra, a graduate of the University of Leiden in Holland and prosperous local doctor, filled the role of hospital physician. October 12 is the 285th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (286th in leap years). ... 1773 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Leiden University, located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ...

At this time, treatment for psychiatric disorders primarily consisted of restraint and application of discomfort, as many believed the irrational behavior exhibited by the mentally ill to be a conscious choice that the patients were to be dissuaded from. At the public hospital, a variety of restraining devices and drugs accomplished the first goal while such treatments as cold plunge baths (via the ducking chair), bloodletting, intimidation, cupping glasses, blistering salves, and, beginning in 1793, an electrostatic machine, attempted to bring about the latter. Though rates of release were relatively high (20-25%) in the hospital’s first years, the rising number of chronic patients in the 1820’s and 1830’s, as well as reports of monotony and inhumane treatment prompted the Virginia House of Delegates to release a critical report of the hospital management in 1835. A common scold gets her comeuppance in the ducking stool. ... Bloodletting (or blood-letting, in modern medicine referred to as phlebotomy) was a popular medical practice from antiquity up to the late 19th century, involving the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the belief that this would cure or prevent illness and disease. ... Intimidation is the act of making others do what one wants through fear. ... 1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... | Come and take it, slogan of the Texas Revolution 1835 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

John Galt and Moral Management

In 1841, the hospital was renamed the Eastern Lunatic Asylum and newly-appointed superintendent John Minson Galt II initiated a series of reforms which came to have great effect on the history of mental treatment. In the 1850s, Galt suggested a day-patient approach similar to the town of Geel (present-day Germany), where patients went into town and interacted with the community during the day and returned to the hospital at night to sleep. The Court of Directors rejected this full implementation of this proposal. The idea was a century ahead of its time and was to re-emerge as deinstitutionalization theory in the 1900s. However, Dr. Galt did carry out an experiment with deinstitutionalization in Williamsburg that lasted for a decade. Convalescing patients who behaved well and had good self-control (approximately half of the 280 patients at the time), had the freedom of the town at all times during the day. The townspeople were also encouraged to visit and socialize with patients still confined to the hospital grounds as a form of talk therapy that had not previously existed in American mental treatment. Many of these changes reflected the new idea of "moral management," a self-directed form of rehabilitation advocated by reformers such as Dorothea Dix which brought about a change in social perception and treatment of mental illness. Galt strove to allow patients a greater degree of comfort and dignity than previously provided and to improve their relations with the staff. Under his guidance, the rooms at the Eastern Asylum were made to resemble apartments rather than jail cells, activities, lectures, and a library were introduced to provide social and leisure opportunities, and sedating drugs steadily replaced more physical forms of restraint in use at the hospital. Geel is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. ... Dorothea Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802 – July 17, 1887) was a social activist who, from the early 1840s to well after the American Civil War lobbied almost every States legislature to create asylums for the insane. ...

Williamsburg, which struggled following the move of Virginia's capital to Richmond in 1780, was often said to be the place where "five hundred lazy live off five hundred crazy" due to the economic importance of the hospital in the 19th century.

Civil War and Decline

On May 6, 1862, Union troops captured the asylum, which in the same month was struck by the death of Superintendent Galt. In the following decades, the increasingly crowded hospital saw a regression in methodology as science was increasingly viewed as an ineffective means of dealing with mental illness. During this era of custodial care, the goal became not to cure patients, but to provide a comfortable environment for them, separate from society. On June 7, 1885, the original 1773 hospital burned to the ground due to a fire that had started in the building’s newly-added electrical wiring, an unfortunate consequence of the great expansion of facilities at this time. May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... June 7 is the 158th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (159th in leap years), with 207 days remaining. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1773 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Restoration

By 1935 Eastern State Hospital housed some 2000 patients with no more land for expansion. The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg and the Williamsburg Inn surrounded the facility with a thriving tourist trade. It is said that, on one of his frequent strolls through the restored town he helped finance, philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. happened to pass by Eastern State and introduce himself to an inmate out for a walk around the grounds. Upon hearing Rockefeller’s name, the inmate is said to have replied “Oh sure – and I’m Napoleon Bonaparte.” The hospital’s location and space issues made a move become necessary. Between 1937 and 1968, all of Eastern State’s patients were moved to a new facility on the outskirts of Williamsburg, Virginia, where it continues to operate today. View of Duke of Gloucester Street Colonial Williamsburg is the historic district of the independent city of Williamsburg, Virginia. ... John D. Rockefeller, Jr. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Williamsburg is the name of some places in the United States of America: Williamsburg, Brooklyn in New York City Williamsburg, Colorado Williamsburg, Florida Williamsburg, Iowa Williamsburg, Kansas Williamsburg, Kentucky Williamsburg, Maryland Williamsburg, Massachusetts Williamsburg, Michigan Williamsburg, New Mexico Williamsburg, North Carolina Williamsburg, Ohio Williamsburg, Pennsylvania Williamsburg, Virginia including Colonial Williamsburg...

In 1985, the original hospital was rebuilt on its excavated foundations by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and now operates as a museum. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Rouse, Parke, Jr. (1973). Cows on the Campus: Williamsburg in Bygone Days. Deitz Press. ISBN 0-87517-047-1.
• Official History of Eastern State Hospital
• Brief History of Eastern State Hospital and the Treatment of Mental Illness in America