Upon opening its doors in 1904, Norwich State Hospital admitted 95 patients in one single building. Within a few short years patient numbers grew dramatically, causing the hospital to expand. Norwich quickly became a self-sufficient institution, with a power plant, farm, bakery and laboratory as well as a theatre and bowling alley for recreation.
Photo: "Personified"
Norwich State Hospital opened its doors in 1904. In the early years, the Superntendents believed in the importance of education and that the mechanical restraint of patients was more effective than medicating them. However, in the 1940's a number of federally funded studies, done by Dr. W Paul Havens, led to the experimentation of hepatitis on patients, which the government only recently admitted to.
Photo: "Intimidate"
Built far from civilization, Norwich State Hospital opened its doors in 1904 with just one building and ninety five patients. As the campus grew, the buildings were connected via a series of utility tunnels to help with the transport of patients and employees. As with most asylums of the time, the campus expansion also included a private power plant, farm, bakery, laboratory and theatre.
Photo: "Drowning"
Inside the hospital building at Norwich State Hospital.
Norwich State Hospital opened in Preston, Connecticut in 1904 as the Norwich Hospital for the Insane. Norwich was built as a self-sufficient facility with its own farm, bakery, laboratory, power plant, staff & doctor housing as well as a bowling alley. What began as a single building housing under 100 mentally ill patients expanded to over twenty buildings and 3,000 patients by the 1950's. The facility operated successfully until the 1970's, when the population of patients decreased and most of the buildings, with the exception of a few original ones, were closed. The hospital closed in 1996 and last year demolition began.