Goth Utica Lunatic asylum

by Peter Ogden

Title

Goth Utica Lunatic asylum

Artist

Peter Ogden

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

This is a copy of Goth Utica Lunatic Asylum, Utica, New York, 2017, by Peter Gumaer Ogden, 1957-, American. Digital photograph.
The Utica Psychiatric Center, also known as Utica State Hospital, opened in Utica on January 16, 1843. It was New York's first state-run facility designed to care for the mentally ill, and one of the first such institutions in the United States. It was originally called the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica. The Greek Revival structure was designed by Captain William Clarke and its construction was funded by the state and by contributions from Utica residents.
The original plans for the hospital included four identical buildings, set at right angles to one another with a central courtyard. Due to a lack of funds, construction was halted after the first building was completed.This building (Old Main) stands over 50 feet high, 550 feet long, and nearly 50 feet in depth. The six Greek style columns that decorate the front of Old Main stand at 48 feet tall and each has an eight-foot diameter.
The hospital filled quickly and more beds were needed, so the building was enlarged by the addition of wings on either end. These wings opened in 1846, and in 1850, the accommodations were listed as: "380 single rooms for patients, 24 for their attendants, 20 dormitories each accommodating from 5 to 12 persons, 16 parlors or day rooms, 12 dining rooms, 24 bathing rooms, 24 closets and 24 water closets."
The hospital's first director, Amariah Brigham, believed in "labor as the most essential of our curative means". Accordingly, patients were encouraged to participate in outdoor tasks, such as gardening, and handicrafts, such as needlework and carpentry. Brigham also introduced an annual fair at the hospital, to display and sell items created by the patients. The first fair, in 1844, raised $200, which went toward an addition to the library, musical instruments and a greenhouse. Some of the asylum inmates also printed a newsletter, called The Opal, which contained articles, poems, and drawings produced by the patients.
In 1852, Old Main's first floor stairway caught fire. Patients and staff were safely evacuated, but a firefighter and doctor were killed while trying to salvage items from the building. The entire center portion of the building was destroyed. Four days after the fire at Old Main, a barn on the asylum grounds caught fire. William Spiers, a convicted arsonist, former patient, and sporadic employee, was arrested after admitting to setting both fires because he was angry with his supervisor.

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December 21st, 2019

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