Timeline

1700 – 1900

1706: “The Tuke family is credited with developing moral treatment at their York Retreat in England in 1706.”

1745 – 1813: Benjamin Rush, founder of what would become the American Psychiatric Association. Firm believer in the gyrating chain: congested blood in brain produced mental illness.

1745 – 1826: Phillipe Pinel – France

1759 – 1820: Vincenzo Chiaruggi – Italy

1802 – 1887: Dorothea Lynde Dix.

1809 – 1883: Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride

1812: Dr. Benjamin Rush’s treatise “Diseases of the Mind” bemoaned “the slow progress of humanity in treating the mentally ill.”

1818: “McLean Asylum (McLean Hospital) first state asylum, before which “there was no public provision for the treatment of the mentally ill in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

1827 – 1895: Daniel Tuke – England

1832 – 1858: Massachusetts State Legislature passed Commitment laws; “Only those “furiously and dangerously mad and a threat to the community.” and committed by a probate judge were supposed to be hospitalized against their will.”

1833: Worcester State Hospital

1834: “Dr. Samuel Woodward of Worcester State Hospital announced that 82.25 percent of his patients recovered, while other superintendents at McLean’s in Boston, and at hospitals in Virginia and Ohio, claimed up to 100 percent cures. Ambitious hospital managers and doctors were willing to make such unsubstantiated and indeed impossible claims of patient curability at their respective institutions for relatively simple reasons of getting ahead in business, for honor, appointment, and promotion.”

Oct 1840: “Dr. Kirkbride was influenced by a visit to the Worcester, Massachusetts State Hospital. There he saw patients recieving not only medical treatment, but patients were allowed to work in gardens, take rides and walk about.”

1841: Dorothea Lynde Dix visits a Massachusetts House of Correction and decides “to get lunatics out of jails, poor homes and attics.”

1843: Charles Dickens reported that moral treatment “worked well” in the South Boston Municipal Hospital.

Oct 16, 1844: 13 Superintendents of mental institutions met to form the American Association of Medical Superintendents which later became the American Psychiatric Association.

Aug 12 1851: State Commissioners first visited Northampton in their search for a location for the third hospital for the insane in Massachusetts.”

Sep 4 1851: State Commissioners announced that Northampton had been selected as the appropriate site.

1854: Tauton State Hospital
- Insanity Commission: To learn how many more beds were needed, “probably the most exhaustive survey of the subject ever made in our century.” – John A Houston’s 1973 study.

Oct 26 1855: 172 acres of land purchased for $13,000.

Dec 19 1855: Contract was made w/Robert J Mayer and Charles Tufts of Boston. Samuel S. Standley was named resident Commissioner on behalf of the State.

Mar 15 1856: Construction started.

1856 – 1858: Main Complex built including: Administration Building, South Wards 1, 2, 3, and North Wards 1, 2, 3, Rear Wing and Rear Center.

Jul 4 1856: In connection with the city’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of our National Independence the cornerstone of the building was laid.

Dec 15 1856: Roof covered.

Aug 25 1857: Dr. William Henry Prince appointed Superintendent.

Spring 1858: Work completed at approximate cost of $300,000.

Jul 1 1858: First patient, a woman was admitted.

Oct 1 1858: 220 patients had been admitted, five-sixths of the number originally planned for. Dr. Prince was assisted by 5 trustees and a staff of 5 salaried employees, an assistant physician, a clerk, a treasurer, an engineer and a farmer.

Apr 30 1864: Dr. Prince resigns. Dr. Cyrus K. Bartlett the assistant physician since 1859 became acting superintendent.

Jul 1 1864: Dr. Pliny Earle appointed, served 21 years.

1869: Dr. Edward B. Nims becomes assistant physician.

1870: Greenhouse constructed as part of Earle’s work therapy program.

1872 to 1892: Daily average patients = 469.

1893: 85 employees.

Oct 1 1885: Dr. Earle retires = 21 years. 7 trustees, 77 employees, 476 patients. Dr. Edward B. Nims assistant physician became superintendent.

Sep 1889: Dr. John A Houston appointed assistant physician.

1891 – 1893: Rear Center – North and Rear Center South (till 1894)

1894 – 1898: Additions to Rear Wing.

Jun 1 1897: Dr. Edward B. Nims retires = 28 years total. Hospital has 98 employees, 522 patients.

Jul 1 1897: Dr. John A Houston appointed superintendent.

1899: Title changed to Northampton Insane Hospital.

1900: Hospital was described as “severly overcrowded,” housing 600 patients.

1900 – 1901: “1900″ Stable

1901 – 1950

1901 – 1903: South Infirmary and Cow Barn

1903 – 1905: North Infirmary

1903: Patient average has increased to 657. 135 employees. 2 Infirmary wards opened. Legislative act changed title to Northampton State Hospital.

1907: “Bishop’s Crook” Lamppost

1907: “The argument of these doctors was that “ultimately no one could cure the insane because no one knew how.” This was confirmed in a 1907 outcry against the asylum by Clifford Beers, a former asylum inmate, in his A Mind that Found Itself “For all his unhappiness with the lack of humane and rehabilitation treatment within the asylum, he could not… conceive of another system.”

1908: Paint Shop

1911 – 1913: Laundry

1912 – 1921: Dr. Arthur N. Ball appointed assistant physician.

1914 – 1915: Horse Barn

1914: “In 1914, a fire pump house and a stable for farm horses, made necessary by a fire in the old stable. Two important additions, a large pavilion for women and a club house for men with bowling alleys, a billiard room, and a reading and smoking room, were built as a result of gifts, the former from a sister of former patients, and the latter as a memorial to a trustee who had served the hospital for twenty-four years.”

1917: Dr. Edward W. Whitney appointed assistant physician.

1918 – 1920: South Dorm and North Dorm

1924 – 1925: South Ward 4 and North Ward 4

1925 – 1927: D Building (MC)

1926 – 1928: Library

1927 – 1928: E Buidling (MC) and Nurses Dorm

1928: 1559 patients and 219 employees. First of Memorial group built.

Jul 30 1929: Dr. John A. Houston retires = 40 years total.

1930 – 1932: C Building (MC)

Feb 1 1930: Dr. Theodore A. Hoch appointed Superintendent.

1931 – 1932: Club House

1931 – 1933: Attendants Dorm

1932: 3rd Ward building added.

Aug 4 1932: Dr. Theodore A. Hoch dies.

Nov 8 1933: Dr. Edward W. Whitney appointed Superintendent.

1933: Public Works Administration in Washington announced $708,000 for a new heating plant, dining hall, and ward buildings.

1934 – 1936: F Building (MC) and Memorial Dining Room (MC)

1934 – 1935: Power Plant (Earle St)

1935: Hospital has approximately 2100 patient and 420 employees.

1935 – 1936: Laundry (Earle St)

Jan 1935: Dr. J. H. Fernand Longpre appointed assistant physician.

Feb 16 1935: Dr. Edward W. Whitney dies.

May 11 1935: Dr. Arthur N. Ball, assistant to the Commissioner of Mental Diseases appointed Superintendent.

Sep 1935: Annual field day inaugurated.

1936 – 1938: Main Kitchen and Dinning Room

1937: Firehouse

1937 – 1940: Superintendent’s House

1938: Olander Cafeteria built as WPA project.

1939: In Massachusetts 53 percent of admitted patients were over 50 and 25 percent were schizophrenic. The state had beds for 17,538 patients but interned 20,623 patients. One physician for 197 patients.

1940: Wagon Shed

1942 – 1946: Dr. J. H. Fernand Longpre went into military service.

1946: Hospital becomes Affiliate School for Neuro-Psychiatric nursing. The two-year course in psychiatric nursing was abandoned in WWII when it became evident that this type of nursing should be included in general nursing education.

1947: Independant psychology department established.

May 7 1947: Dr. J. H. Fernand Longpre appointed assistent Superintendent.

1949: Hilltop Friends created.

1950 – Present

1952: “AP” Building (MC)

1952: Thorazine introduced.

Jan 12 1952: Dr. Arthur N. Ball retires. Dr. J. H. Fernand Longpre becomes acting Superintendent. Hospital has 2331 patients and 509 employees.

Jul 1 1952: Dr. J. H. Fernand Longpre appointed Superintendent by Commissioner Jack R. Ewalt.

Oct 27 1952: Beauty Parlor completed.

1954 – 1960: Reserpine = decreased blood pressure, lethargy, depression, Parkinsonism.

1956 – 1959: Haskell Building

1957: Storage Shed
- Imipramine = first anti-depressant.

1959: Piggery (North side of Burts Pit Rd.)
- Hospital farm closed.

1960: 2500 patients, 500 staff.

1961: Dairy Barn and Butler Building

1961 – 1962: Pavilion

1966: Main Garage

Dec 28 1966: Massachusetts Mental Health Project signed into law. DMH decentralized. “Public Indifference Blamed for Present Deplorable Conditions in Massachusetts Mental Institutions.” VA Budget 7M, NSH 5M though NSH had twice as many patients.

1967: Congress passed the Anti-Peonage Act outlawing work therapy.

1967 – 1969: G Building (MC)

Feb 28 1967: DHG: Mental Health Project.

1969 – 1971: Sanford Bloomberg works as a psychiatric physician at NSH for two years.

1972: Land given to Smith Voc.

1973: John A Houston’s study.

Feb 20 1973: DHG: Incentive Community Project.

1975: “Smith College was renting pasture on the North side of West St. adjoining their athletic fields for their horse riding program. They had already purchased part of the hospital land for their athletic fields on the West bank of the Mill River.”

Feb 25 1976: Northampton turned 11 acres over for county jail.

Mar 29 1976: DHG: DMH to replace unliscenced and foreign trained physicians. Only two Doctors were licensed at the time.

Dec 6 1976: Consent Decree 39 pages + attachments. Was (35) supposed to get asylum down to 50 patients in 3 years. It would take almost 14. Decree: 250 patients by 6 30 1979, 150 by 6-30-1980 and 50 by 6-30-81 who would be moved out as soon as placements were created for them.

Nov 28 1978: DHG: Dr. Ronald J Blank: Decision to close NSH is a tragic mistake.

Nov 30 1978: DHG: on feasability of Decree & Patients in town.

Jan 26 1979: Chair of trustee testified that patients were being released prematurely. DHG reported on community’s concerns.

Apr 16 1979: Ward 3 and City Council meeting = saturation of community = Schwartz talked about selfishness.

May 79: Attorney Micheal Ponsor whom was appointed Monitor of Decree in 3/79 reports conditions at State Hospital “deplorable.”

Apr 1980: 36 member Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Public Inpatient Mental Health Services: condition of hospital. Chief admin Goggins critical of this report.

May 2 1980: DHG: Goggins responce to Blue Ribbon Commission.

May 19 1980: Judge Freedman ordered State to increase DMH budget by 9M or face contempt charges.

May 20 1980: DHG article on community’s concerns.

Jun 1980: 122nd anniversary of first admission. Dr. Jeffery Geller wrote a DHG article noting hospital registered its 64,500th admission. Problems w/community “over the next hundred years after its opening very little appeared in the press about care and treatment.”

May 1981: Life magazine article “Emptying the Madhouse”.

February 7 1982: Fatal fire downtown caused by patient w/arson history.

Mar 3 1982: DHG: Speaker McGee adresses budget of decentralization process.

Nov 1985: DHG: article about homeless/in jail/readmitted patients.

Aug 1990: 2 important articles in American Journal of Psychiatry summerizing Decree and its impact on the community.

1993: Last 12 patients reassigned, NSH closed.