Maryland Hospital for the Insane

June 2, 2018 By in Baltimore City, Hospitals

Founded: 1797
Closed: 1870 (Patients moved to Spring Grove, Catonsville)
Location: North Broadway (property sold to Johns Hopkins in 1870), Baltimore, MD

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Maryland Hospital. Cator Collection. Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore

Maryland Hospital. Cator Collection. Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore

Additional Information

  • Dates: 1797
    Notes: Legislature passes an Act to authorize the erection at or near Baltimore, of a hospital for the indigent, sick and insane and makes an appropriation of $8000 therefor (this was the City, Public, or Maryland Hospital on North Broadway).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 670
  • Dates: 1797/09/16
    Notes: Board of Health establishes a temporary hospital encampment for the sick north of the City Hospital site and assigns Drs. Joseph Whay and James Smith as attending physicians (September 16).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 669
  • Dates: 1798/02/20
    Notes: The City Council directs a committee, consisting of Mayor Calhoun and Messrs. Yellot, Lawson and McKim, to select a site and authorizes the purchase of 6 3/4 acres for the City Hospital for $600. Building begun (February 20).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 671
  • Dates: 1798/11
    Notes: Legislature grants $3000 additional in aid of “Public Hospital” and requires the Mayor and Council to make rules for its government and select an attending physician (November).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 671
  • Dates: 1800/11/13
    Notes: City Hospital about one-third completed and accommodates 130 patients; $3000 has been expended in addition to the State appropriation (November 13).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 672
  • Dates: 1808/06/24
    Notes: City leases Maryland Hospital for fifteen years to Drs. Smyth and Mackenzie (June 24.)
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 677
  • Dates: 1808/12/24
    Notes: Legislature grants lottery for $40,000 for benefit of Maryland Hospital (December 24).
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 677
  • Dates: 1812
    Notes: Legislature grants $5000 annually for three years to Drs. Smyth and Mackenzie, for completion of Maryland Hospital. Board of Visitors report hospital in good order, central building nearly completed, and accommodations provided for 100 patients. Dr. William Gibson, Consulting Surgeon and Drs. George Brown, Miles Littlejohn, John Coulter, J.C. White, John Crawford, Solomon Birckhead, Pierre Chatard, John Cromwell and Ashton Alexander Consulting Physicians.
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 678
  • Dates: 1814/02/31
    Notes: City extends lease of Drs. Smith and Mackenzie for ten years, on certain conditions (March 21); by loands from State and by lotteries they erect centre brick building, four stories, 64 x 56 feet, and two wings, three stories, 120 x 36 feet each; whole front, 300 feet.
    Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 680
  • Dates: 1814/09/13
    Notes: Bombardment of Fort McHenry (September 13); 234 sick and wounded from the troops around Baltimore brought to the “Public Hospital.”Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 680
  • Dates: 1816
    Notes: Dr. James Smyth furnishes City Hospital with wax anatomical models at a cost of $20,000. They were made by Chiappi and embraced a male and female figure, of life size, the parts and organs of which were separable, showing the internal organization, gravid uterus, etc. These models were destroyed in the burning of Peale’s Museum, where they had been deposited.Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 681
  • Dates: 1816/01/29
    Notes: Levy Courts authorized to send lunatics to Maryland Hospital, for each of which the county is to be assessed $100, Chapter 78 (January 29).Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 683
  • Dates: 1843
    Notes: The Maryland Hospital was established in the year 1979, by gift of a lot containing seven acres, from Mr. Jeremiah Yellot, a citizen of Baltimore, to the State of Maryland, on condition that the legislature should grant the means necessary for the purposes of a Lunatic and General Hospital. Accordingly, that body did grant, in 1798, the sum of $8,000; and soon after the corporation of Baltimore, and sundry and benevolent citizens, contributed from time to time, the additional sum of $18,000; with which a building was erected sufficient for all the wants of the community at that time. The Institution insensibly fell under the care and management of the city authorities; and as the State had not thought proper to exercise it rights, the corporation of the city, in 1808, desirous to meet the wants of a rapidly increasing population, granted a lease of the premises to Drs. Smith and Mackenzie, two of the most benelvolent and enterprising members of the profession in the City of Baltimore, who undertook to enlarge the building, and render it in all respects more useful. By the noble exertions of these gentlemen, the legislature, in 1811, was induced to grant a further sum of $18,000, and in 1816, the additional sum of $30,000, with the privilege of raising by lottery $20,000 more, in all amounting to $94,000 — and to the honour of these gentlemen it should be known that a large sum, amounting to $60,000, was furnished from their profits and other private resources to carry out fully their benevolent palns, making an entire expenditure of $154,000, up to this period of the history of the Institution. From this time about 40 lunatics and 150 patients, with general diseases, wsere usually accommodated; and it may, with justice to the above mentioned gentlemen, be stated, that no general Hospital in this country was better conducted or produced more happy results. In 1827, the State of Maryland asserted its claim to this Institution; and as the title was clearly in the State, the City corporation abandoned the control and supervision, which were vested by the legislature in a corporation, styled, the President and Visiters of the Maryland Hospital; whose powers, however, were to be suspended until the expiration of the lease of Dr. John Mackenzie, the sole survivor of the original lessees. This lease expired January 1st, 1834, when the President and Visiters assumed the management of the Institution and commenced by placing the Sisters of Charity as nurses, and one of them as Matron and Stewardess of the establishment, under the direction of the President of the Board.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the President and Board of Visiters of the Maryland Hospital and Resident Physician’s Report, for 1843 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 5-6
  • Dates: 1844
    Notes: Seven years have now elapsed since the Hospital was devoted exclusively to the Insane. In that time five hundred and fifty three insane patients have enjoyed the benefit of the Institution; and of this number, two hundred and sixty-five have been restored to their right minds — to usefulness and society.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the Maryland Hospital for the year 1844 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 5
  • Dates: 1844
    Notes: The prejudices agains Hospitals for the Insane, so iften expressed, even at the present time, are founded in error. These institutions have, of late years, undergone essential improvements. Their architectural arrangements, the medical and moral treatment, everything pretaining to them, has reference to the comfort, the quietude, the happiness, and improvement of the inmates. These are considered as a class of invalids, preventing the strongest claims to our sympathy and regard. They are treated kindly and respectfully, and as rational beings; they are exempt from the numberless causes of annoyance and irritation, which constantly beset them at home; they are subject to less restraint, and their condition is renedered much more comforatble than it could be if surrounded by their friends; they enjoy many priviledges and advantages, which they could not otherwise possess; if susceptible of restoration, this is brought about more certainly and speedily than it could be elsewhere; and if their disease be incurable, its mitigation may, in most cases, be such as to secure to them a good degree of usefulness and happiness.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the Maryland Hospital for the year 1844 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 6-7
  • Dates: 1844
    Notes: The inmates generally, in good weather, are accustomed to walk out more or less every day; the men, in parties of five or six, often mae pedestrian excursions of some miles, usually in compamy with an attendant, but sometimes without one. Occasionally one of the patients takes charge of the rest. There are almost always a few of the male patients who have the privilege of walking at discretion, without an attendant, and we have seldom known this privilege to be abused.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the Maryland Hospital for the year 1844 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 10
  • Dates: 1844
    Notes: With respect to corporeal restraints, we have to say, that we are not prepared to given them up entirely; the mildest forms only are used, but neverl unless directed by the physician. With us they are never resorted to as a punishment, but merely as a necessary means to prevent the patient doing mischief; and of this we endeavor to make him sensible. We recollect no instance during the last year, in which more than two out of the whole number of inmates were at any one time subjected to such restraints. Possibly we might have dispensed with them altogether, did we not believe that the welfare of the patients would be better promoted by their judicious use. The leather muff, mittens, and straps, are the only apparatus employed; and they are always laid aside as soon as the condition which called for their use ceases.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the Maryland Hospital for the year 1844 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 11
  • Dates: 1844
    Notes: Our means of carrying out a thorough classification of the patients will be improved by the fitting up of seventeen additional rooms in the Eastern wing, and by the introduction of heated air into the third story of the Centre building. These improvements are now in progress and will be completed in a few weeks.Source: Maryland Hospital, Report of the Maryland Hospital for the year 1844 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 12
  • Dates: 1852
    Notes: Legislature authorizes the selection of a new site for the Maryland Insane Asylum — Spring Grove selected.Source: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 39
  • Dates: 1852
    Notes: New site, Spring Grove near Catonsville, selected for Maryland Hospital for the Insane.Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 702
  • Dates: 1853
    Notes: Dr. John Fonerden, resident physician reports 130 patients in Maryland Insane AsylumSource: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 40
  • Dates: 1854
    Notes: Maryland Insane Asylum established at Spring Grove, chiefly through the personal and lifelong efforts of Richard Sprigg Steuart.Source: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 40
  • Dates: 1858
    Notes: On the first of December, 1857, there were under care one hundred and eight patients affected with insanity, and two who were recoving from mania-a-potu, making one hundred and ten — fifty-eight males and fifty-two females.During the thirteen months ending with the 31st of December, there have been admitted eighty-eight, — seventy males, including twenty-six with mania-a-potu, and eighteen females. The whole number under care has consisted of one hundred and ninety-eight.There have been eighty discharges and ten deaths, leaving at the end of the year one hundred and eight in the Hospital, — fifty-seven males and fifty-one females.

    Source: Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Report of the President and Vistors of the Maryland Hospital, [for the Insane, at Baltimore,] for 1858 and 1859, to the General Assembly of Maryland, January 1860 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 10

  • Dates: 1859
    Notes: At the meeting of the Board [of Trustees] in June, 1859, the following Resolution was passed: “Resolved, That the existing rule under which visitors are admitted on Monday afternoons be rescinded, and that authority to admit, at his discretion, be confided to the Medical Superintendent.”The adoption of this Resolution has relieved the Hospital of a very great annoyance. For many years it had been customary to allow persons who wished to see its internal arrangements to walk through the principal wards every Monday afternoon. The object in giving the privilege was to afford visitors an opportunity of receiving a pleasant impression as to the pains takens to make the insane comfortable. But after several streets were paved in our vicinity, so many young and thoughtless persons began to enlarge the Monday company, that a rescinding of the privilege became indispensable. Citizens and strangers who, from position and intelligence, are entitled to have an opportunity of seeing the interior of a Hospital for the insane, continue to be cordially welcomed on any day except Sunday, and are conducted through such parts of the building as they can visit without a disadvantage to the patients.Source: Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Report of the President and Vistors of the Maryland Hospital, [for the Insane, at Baltimore,] for 1858 and 1859, to the General Assembly of Maryland, January 1860 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 20
  • Dates: 1859
    Notes: James A. Steuart appointed as Assistant Medical Superintendent.Source: Maryland Hospital for the Insane, Report of the President and Vistors of the Maryland Hospital, [for the Insane, at Baltimore,] for 1858 and 1859, to the General Assembly of Maryland, January 1860 Baltimore: Printed by John D. Toy: 21
  • Dates: 1868/07/24
    Notes: Dr. Wm. F. Stewart, Resident Physician of the State Insane Asylum (till 1876). The State Insane Asylum reorganized by Dr. Richard Sprigg Steuart, who spent his life and means in its inception, care and support.Source: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 44
  • Dates: 1877
    Notes: We have no details in regard to the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, at Baltimore, or Mount Hope Insane Asylum, at the same city.Source: Butler, Samuel, The Medical Register and Directory of the United States…. Philadelphia: Office of the Medical Examiner and Surgical Reporter: 315