Utica State Hospital
Utica, New York
Please click on the thumbnail images below to see historic postcards. The last image is of Marcy State Hospital, a different facility located 10 miles away.
The following text, provided by Mark Harf, a native of Utica, New York, is
courtesy of the Greater Utica Landmarks Society, June 11, 1981 and an exhibit
which was held in the Fountain Elms building of the Munson Williams Proctor
Museum of Art in Utica in the mid-eighties:
The main building of the Utica Psychiatric Center (originally called the New
York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica) was completed in 1843 and is
internationally recognized as a monumental example of the Greek Revival
architecture tradition. The building was the first New York State owned and
operated institution to care for the mentally ill, and it also was one of the
earliest structures to incorporate progressive theories on the treatment of
mental illness. It was also one of the first such institutions in the United
States.
The huge size of the stone structure is perhaps its most significant feature;
being 550 feet long and averageing 50 feet in depth. The projecting central
portico is 120 feet long and is dominated by six limestone columns 48 feet
high and eight feet in diameter at the base. "No European public
edifice has
a grander Greek Doric portico than that which dominates the tremendous four
story front block...." architectural historian Henry Russell Hitchcock
wrote
in his definitive Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
The prevailing medical theory of the 1830's advocated that patients be
segregated by sex and type and degree of illness, with each group housed in a
self contained unit. As far as possible, the interior layout of the building
was arranged to provide optimum conditions for the patients.
In 1850, a listing of accomodations noted: 380 single rooms for patients, 24
for their attendants, 20 dormitories each accomodating from 5 to 12 persons,
16 parlors or day rooms, 12 dining rooms, 24 bathing rooms, 24 closets and 24
water closets. The mechanical systems of the original building incorporated
the latest improvements. Hot air woodburning furnaces in the basement
provided heat for the building. Ventilators opening from the rooms to flues
in the walls allowed air to circulate constantly. Hot and cold running water
was supplied to each floor, the cold water coming from the roof while the
warm water was pumped by a steam engine from basement storage tanks.
Dr. Amariah Brigham, the first director, made a significant contribution to
the treatment of mental illness. He believed insanity was a disease that
could be treated by putting the patients to work on the hospital's farm,
grounds, and other useful occupational projects. He established a printing
shop where in 1844, he published the American Journal of Insanity, the first
publication of its kind in the world (and forerunner of the American
Psychiatric Journal).
In 1836, a New York State commission was appointed to purchase a site and
erect a charitable institution for mental patients. In 1837, 130 acres of
land were purchased for $16,000. New York State contributed $10,000 and the
remainder was raised by Utica's citizens (total cost at the time exceeded
$285,000, which made it one of the most expensive and largest institutions of
its time). Captain William Clarke appointed a commissioner in 1837, was the
architect of the powerful Greek revival design. His plans called for three
additional buildings, similar in design to the existing building to be built
in a quadrangle. The four buildings were to be connected by glass verandas
and the total space enclosed was approximately thirteen acres. The grand
design proved too costly, so the other buildings were never completed.
The Utica building's Greek Revival, doric columns (six of them) are eight
feet in diameter at the base and 48 feet high. They are at the main entrance
which also has a gray facade made of upstate New York limestone. Two four
story main wings extend laterally from the entrance. Later construction
added wings to either end, greatly increasing its capacity (parts of these
additions have since been demolished). One estimate compared the asylum's
original square footage to that of a 26 story sky scraper. In the attic,
visitors may still see murals and the stage of a patient's theater; sunlight
still floods the vacant day rooms downstairs.
Yet, from its earliest days, Utica was overcrowded and underfunded. In 1843,
the average daily population was 109 with a 49 percent recovery rate; by 1869
the population was 600, the recovery rate had dropped to 26 percent, and
seven times as many insane persons were still in poorhouses. Although
advocates of Brigham's "moral treatment" philosophy were hard
pressed to
admit that some cases were beyond their reach, a growing number of physicians
and legislators began to see a separate category for the chronic insane;
these patients were incurable, they argued, and they needed only custodial
care.*
Sources: Greater Utica Landmarks Society "Old Main" Guided Tour
Leaflet
1981, and 1985 Exhibit, "Silent Voices", at Munson Williams Proctor
Institute
Museum of Art (Utica) with Leaflet text by Brad Edmonson.
