Nineteenth annual report of the Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton : October, 1874.

  • State Lunatic Hospital (Northampton, Mass.)
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nineteenth annual report of the Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton : October, 1874. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/80 (page 9)
    come, from time to time, by the use of paint and putty, and by other expedients, until, at length, it was thought best to remedy it altogether. They have all recently been covered with a sheathing of boards, laid over the old ones, and the roofs re-tinned, so that it is believed they are water-tight. A frame building, seventy-five feet long and thirty fe&t wide, one and a half stories in height, and roofed with slate, • has been erected within the last few months. The first story is intended as a lumber-room and a poultry-house, and the half-story above as a general store-room for the coarser and heavier articles which are best preserved by protection from snn and rain, and which are not especially valuable, either as ornaments or as evidences of careful husbandry, if scattered out of doors around the buildings. All the work upon this building, except the slating of the roof and the masonry of the foundation and the underpinning, was performed by the regular employes of the hospital, with the assistance of some of the patients. The main sewer of the hospital, which formerly ended at a point near the barn, has been extended, by heavy stone masonry, one hundred and seventy-seven feet westward, and thence, by cement-pipe of ten-inch calibre, one hundred and thirty feet farther, whence it is to be continued to the reservoirs in the meadow, an additional distance of one hundred and twenty-two feet. The causeway, also of heavy stone-work, upon which it is' to be conducted over the valley and across the brook, is now in process of construction. This done, the sewage can be made far more useful as a fertilizer than it has ever been hitherto. The thirty acres of excellent meadow surrounding the reservoirs, already much improved *by cultivation, can, in a few years, be made as fertile and as prolific as a garden. A good supply of wholesome fruit is almost a necessity in a hospital, and it has heretofore been customary here to lay in a large stock of apples. As the farm furnished but a small part of the quantity needed, it has been necessary to buy most of them. Under these circumstances we have believed it to be our best policy to take advantage of a favorable opportunity, and purchase what is kfiown as the Clarke orchard. Of land, it contains about fifteen acres; 2