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The Hudson River State Hospital
Source : Harpers Weekly
This institution, of which a view is given on page 193, was created by the Legislature in 1867. Its location is upon the east bank of the Hudson, one mile north of Poughkeepsie. The site was purchased by the city of Poughkeepsie and the county of Dutchess for $85,000, and made over to the State of New York, as a free gift, for the purpose of the hospital. Subsequently legislative enactment designated the following counties as the Hudson River State Hospital District: Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond, New York, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Sullivan, Orange, Ulster, Dutchess, Columbia, Greene, Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Essex, Clinton, Warren, and Franklin. The regulations of the hospital restrict the admission of patients to cases of acute insanity, or those recently attacked. The managers hope to make provision eventually for all the insane now in the poor-houses of the hospital district. Thus far about four hundred and fifty patients have been admitted, the highest number under treatment at one time being two hundred and two.
The managers of the hospital are, Hon. Abiah W. Palmer, Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew, of New York City, Hon. Amasa J. Parker, of Albany, Dr. Edward L. Beadle, of Poughkeepsie, General Joseph Howland, of Matteawan, Hon. Charles Wheaton, of Newburgh, James Roosevelt, Esq., of Hyde Park, and Dr. Frederick D. Lente, of Cold Spring.
The hospital, designed by Messres. Vaux, Withers, & Co., under the direction of the Committee on Plans, is intended to accommodate about three hundred patients of each sex, the wards for men constituting the entire wing to the south, and the wards for women the entire wing to the north of the central building, which is devoted to various departments of general management. The chapel is placed between the wings and in the rear of the central building, so that patents of one sex are prevented from looking into the wards or yards of patients of the other sex. All the arrangements for the accommodation and treatment of patients are the most complete character.
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