ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE …assets.stelizabethsdevelopment.com/documents/... · ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Bibliography Bib.3 Heritage

ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT

Bibliography

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Heritage Landscapes and Robinson & Associates, Inc.

Archival Sources General Services Administration. Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database. Compiled by Zimmerman

Associates, Inc., 2005. The database consists of well over 700 scanned images, both photographs and drawings, gathered from various repositories. These include the National Archives, the American Institute of Architects (where the majority of materials originating with the hospital are housed), and the St. Elizabeths Hospital Health Sciences Library. The database is the most complete single resource of visual images of the hospital. The database also includes scanned documents. The most useful of these are listed individually below.

Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. Geography & Maps Reading Room. --- Manuscripts Division, Records of the Olmsted Associates. Series B, Job Files. National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division,

College Park, Maryland. Record Group 23, Records of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. --- Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital. National Archives and Records Administration. Textual Documents Division. Washington, D.C. Record

Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital. Entry 20, Records of the Superintendent, Annual Reports of the Subordinate Units, 1919-66.

Olmsted Archives. Job no. 2825, Government Hospital for the Insane. Frederick Law Olmsted National

Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts. Articles “Asylum for the Insane of the Army and Navy and the District of Columbia.” American Journal of

Insanity 9:4, April 1853, 384-396. Beveridge, Charles E, “Toward a Definition of Olmstedian Principles of Design: January 1986, found 4

June 2007 at National Association for Olmsted Parks, http://www.olmtedlorg/index.php?tg=articles&idx=More&topics=46&articles=62

Coyle, Don. “Both Blue and Gray Rest Forgotten at Saint Elizabeths.” ADAMHA News, July 24, 1981,

7.

ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Bibliography

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“Dr. Overholser Dies.” Washington Post, October 7, 1964, A1. “Dr. Overholser Is Sworn In at St. Elizabeths.” Washington Post, October 7, 1937, 26. “Dr. W.A. White Paid Honors for Services.” Washington Post, October 4, 1928, 20. “Dr. White, St. Elizabeth Chief, Dead.” Washington Post, March 8, 1937, 1. Edmondson, Brad. “Beautiful Minds.” Preservation 56:6, November/December 2004, 26-32. Emery, Ina Capitola. “The St. Elizabeths Hospital.” Circa 1895. General Services Administration. Saint

Elizabeths Hospital Database. “Funeral Plans Made.” Washington Post, June 29, 1928, 12. Kanhouwa, Surya, and Kenneth Gorelick. “A Century of Pathology at Saint Elizabeths Hospital.”

Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 121, January 1997, 84-90. --- and Jogues R. Prandoni. “The Civil War and St. Elizabeths Hospital: An Untold Story of Services

from the First Federal Mental Institution in the United States.” Journal of Civil War Medicine 9:1, January-March, 2005, 1-16.

Millikan, Frank Rives. “St. Elizabeths Hospital: end of the Cathedral Era.” Washington History 1:2, Fall

1989, 26-41. --- “Wards of the Nation: The Making of St. Elizabeths Hospital, 1852-1920.” (Ph. D. dissertation,

George Washington University, 1990. Mundy, Liza. “A Tree Grows in St. Elizabeths.” Washington City Paper, April 5-11, 1991. “Old No. 4 Is Still Huffing and Puffing.” (Photograph and caption) n.d. General Services

Administration. Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database. Prandoni, Jogues R., and Suryabala Kanhouwa. “St. Elizabeths Hospital: Photos from 150 Years of

Public Service.” Washington History 17:1, Fall/Winter 2003, 4-25. Schlossberg, Ken. "Inside St. Elizabeths." Washington Daily News, July 21, 1965. General Services

Administration. Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database.

Tindall, William. “The Origin of the Parking System of this City.” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 4, 1901, 75-99.

“Walks about the Grounds,” parts I and II. Sun Dial, circa December 1928. Collection of Suryabala

Kanhouwa, St. Elizabeths Hospital. White, William A. “The New Government Hospital for the Insane.” American Journal of Insanity 66:4,

April 1910, 523-528. Yanni, Carla. “The Linear Plan for Insane Asylums in the United States before 1866.” Journal of the

Society of Architectural Historians 62:1, March 2003, 24-49.


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Books Birnbaum, Charles A. and Peters, Christine Capella, Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the

Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural Landscapes,Washington DC, 1996.

Centennial Papers: Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1855-1955. Washington, D.C.: Centennial Commission,

Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1956. D’Amore, Arcangelo R. T., ed. William Alanson White: The Washington Years, 1903-1937. Washington,

D.C.: Department of Health Education and Welfare, 1976. Dix, Dorthea, Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 1843. Dowd, Mary-Jane M. Records of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital,

Record Group 42, Inventory no. 16. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992.

Heskel, Julia. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott: Past to Present. Shepley Bulfinch Richardson

and Abbott, 1999. Kirkbridge, Thomas S(tory), On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals

for the Insane, Second Edition, J.B. Lippincott & Co.; Philadelphia, 1880. Matchette, Robert B., compiler. Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States.

Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995. Meacham, Harry M. The Caged Panther: Ezra Pound at Saint Elizabeths. New York: Twayne

Publishers. Page, Robert R., Gilbert, Cathy A., Dolan, Susan A., A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents,

Process, and Techniques, US Department of Interior National Park Service, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships, Park Historic Structures and Cultural Landscapes Program, Washington DC, 1988.

Sanborn, F.B., ed. Memoirs of Pliny Earle, M.D. Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1898. Schuyler, David, Apostle of Taste Andrew Jackson Downing 1815-1852, Johns Hopkins Univiersity

Press, Baltimore, 1996. Stock, Noel. The Life of Ezra Pound. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970. Torrey, E. Fuller. The Roots of Treason: Ezra Pound and the Secret of St. Elizabeths. New York:

McGraw-Hill, 1984.


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Government Documents An Act making Appropriations for the Civil and Diplomatic Expenses of the Government for the Year

ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and for other purposes. 32nd Congress, 1st sess. , August 31, 1852.

An Act supplementary to “An Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy, and of

the District of Columbia, in the said District,” approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. 34th Congress, 3rd sess., February 7, 1857.

An Act to Amend an Act entitled an “Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy,

and of the District of Columbia in the said District.” 36th Congress, 1st sess., June 1, 1860. An Act to extend to certain Persons the Privilege of Admission, in certain cases, to the United States

Government Asylum for the Insane. 39th Cong., 1st sess., July 13, 1866. An Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy, and of the District of Columbia, in

the said District. 33rd Congress, 2nd sess., March 3, 1855. An act to provide for the care and custody of persons convicted in the courts of the United States who

have or may become insane while imprisoned. 43rd Congress, 1st session, June 23, 1874. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Soil Survey of the District of Columbia,

Washington DC, 1976. Department of Health and Human Services. “Historical Highlights.”

http://www.hhs.gov/about/ hhshist.html. Devrouax & Purnell. St. Elizabeths Hospital Historic Resources Management Plan. Prepared for the

District of Columbia Office of Business and Economic Development, September 1993. District of Columbia. Historic Preservation Review Board. Application for Historic Landmark or

Historic District Designation: Government Hospital for the Insane (St. Elizabeths Hospital). January 2005.

General Services Administration. St. Elizabeths West Campus Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact

Statement, Cultural Resources Technical Report, December 2006. Heritage Landscapes. St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Landscape Assessment Plan. Prepared for the

General Services Administration, August 31, 2005. Hunter Research, Combined Phase I Archaeological Survey, Prepared for the General Services

Administration, 2005. National Register for Historic Places (NRHP), National Register Bulletin No 15: How to Apply the

National Register Criteria for Evaluation, Washington DC, 1997. How To Complete the National Register Registration Form :16A, 1995. Oehrlein & Associates Architects. “Condition & Reuse Assessment: St. Elizabeths West Campus” (draft).

Prepared for the General Services Administration, January 4, 2006.


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Public Buildings Service. Report on the Treatment, Administration and Service Facilities of St. Elizabeths

Hospital, 1945. St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library. Sluby, Paul E., Sr. “Evolution of the Cemeteries for St. Elizabeths Hospital.” Research Tools for St.

Elizabeths Hospital. Prepared by Zimmerman Associates for the General Services Administration, 2005.

St. Elizabeths Hospital. Annual Reports, 1854-1968. (The annual reports were reviewed in several

locations: the Library of Congress, the National Archives Legislative Records Division, and the St. Elizabeths Hospital Health Sciences Library.)

St. Elizabeths Hospital Master Plan, 1977. St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library. U.S. Congress. House of Representatives. Hearings before the Committee on Rules of the House of

Representatives on House Resolution 12: To Investigate the Government Hospital for the Insane in the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911.

--- Hearings before the Special Committee appointed by the Speaker under a resolution of the House of

Representatives, Fifty-ninth Congress, to make a full and complete investigation of the management of the Government Hospital for the Insane, 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907.

--- Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital. 69th Congress., 2nd sess., H. doc. no. 605, December 26, 1927. --- Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting Propositions relating to the organization of the

hospital for the insane of the army and navy. 33d Congress, 2nd sess., H. doc. no. 24, December 30, 1854.

--- Report of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Government Hospital for the Insane with

Hearings and Digest of the Testimony. 59th Congress, 2nd sess. H. rp. no. 7644, part I, 1907. U.S. Congress. Senate. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, communicating, in compliance with a

resolution of the Senate, information as to the steps taken to establish a Lunatic Asylum in the District of Columbia. 32nd Congress, 2nd sess., S. doc. no. 11, December 30, 1852.

--- Report to accompany Bill S. 44. 33rd Congress, 1st sess., S. rp. no. 57, January 23, 1854. --- Washington: The National Capital. 71st Congress, 3rd sess., S. doc. no. 332, 1932. U.S. Department of the Interior. Report of the Committee to Consider the Organization and Needs of the

Government Hospital for the Insane. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration

Form, OMB No. 1024-0018, August 1986.


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Appendix A: St. Elizabeths Tree and Shrub List

AppA.1


St. Elizabeths West Campus Tree and Shrub Species List Fieldwork: December 2004-April 2005; Updated: 2006, Feb. 2007 Patricia O'Donnell, Gregory De Vries, Tamara Orlow, Thomas Helmkamp, Heritage Landscapes Lower case code indicates shrub or vine Code Botanical Name Common Name Category Af Abies fraseri Fraser fir Evergreen tree An Abies nordmanniana Nordmann fir Evergreen tree Ac Acer cappadocicum Cappadocian maple Deciduous tree Ane Acer negundo Box elder Deciduous tree Apa Acer palmatum Japanese maple Ornamental tree Ap Acer platanoides Norway maple Deciduous tree Ar Acer rubrum Red maple Deciduous tree As Acer saccharinum Silver maple Deciduous tree Asa Acer saccharum Sugar maple Deciduous tree Aca Aesculus carnea Red horsechestnut Deciduous tree Ag Aesculus glabra Ohio buckeye Deciduous tree Ah Aesculus hippocastanum Common horsechestnut Deciduous tree Ab Aesculus hippocastanum 'baumanii' Baumann's horsechestnut Deciduous tree Aa Ailanthus altissima Tree-of-heaven Deciduous tree Aj Albizia julibrissin Mimosa Ornamental tree At Asimina triloba Paw paw Deciduous tree bj Berberis julianae? Wintergreen barberry Evergreen shrub Ba Betula alleghaniensis Yellow birch Deciduous tree Bp Betula papyrifera Paper birch Deciduous tree bs Buxus sempervirens Common boxwood Evergreen shrub cja Camellia japonica Japanese camellia Evergreen shrub Cca Carpinus caroliniana American hornbeam Ornamental tree Cco Carya cordiformis Bitternut hickory Deciduous tree Co Carya ovata Shagbark hickory Deciduous tree Csp Carya species Hickory species Deciduous tree Cm Castanea mollissima Chinese chestnut Ornamental tree

ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Appendix A: St. Elizabeths Tree & Shrub List

AppA.2


Cb Catalpa bignoides Southern catalpa Deciduous tree Ca Cedrus atlantica Blue Atlas cedar Evergreen tree Cd Cedrus deodara Deodar cedar Evergreen tree Ce Celtis occidentalis Common hackberry Deciduous tree Cc Cercis canadensis Eastern redbud Ornamental tree csp Chaenomeles speciosa Common flowering quince Deciduous shrub Cn Chamaecyparis nootkatensis Alaska-cedar Evergreen tree Coc Chamaecyparis obtusa 'crippsii' Hinoki falsecypress Evergreen tree Cpi Chamaecyparis pisifera Japanese falsecypress Evergreen tree Ck Cladastrus kentuckea Yellowwood Deciduous tree Cf Cornus florida Flowering dogwood Ornamental tree Cp Crataegus phaenopyrum Washington hawthorne Ornamental tree Cj Cryptomeria japonica Japanese cryptomeria Evergreen tree cu Cupressus species Cypress species Evergreen shrub ds Deutzia scabra Fuzzy deutzia Deciduous shrub Dv Diospyros virginiana Common persimmon Deciduous tree ea Euonymous americanus American euonymus Deciduous shrub er Exochorda racemosa? Common pearlbush Deciduous shrub Fg Fagus grandifolia American beech Deciduous tree Fs Fagus sylvatica European beech Deciduous tree Fsa Fagus sylvatica 'asplenifolia' Cut leaf European beech Deciduous tree Fra Franklinia alatamaha Franklinia Ornamental tree Fa Fraxinus americana White ash Deciduous tree Fsp Fraxinus species Ash species Deciduous tree Gb Ginkgo biloba Ginkgo Deciduous tree Gti Gleditisia triacanthos var. inermis Thornless honeylocust Deciduous tree Gt Gleditsia triacanthos Honeylocust Deciduous tree Gd Gymnocladus dioicus Kentucky coffee-tree Deciduous tree hh Hedera helix English ivy Evergreen vine hs Hibiscus syriacus Rose of Sharon Deciduous shrub ia? Ilex aquifolium 'variegata' Variegated English holly Evergreen shrub Ico Ilex cornuta Chinese holly Evergreen tree or shrub ib Ilex cornuta 'Burfordii' Burford holly Evergreen shrub ic Ilex crenata Japanese holly Evergreen shrub Io Ilex opaca American holly tree Evergreen tree isp Ilex species Holly species Evergreen shrub Jn Juglans nigra Black walnut Deciduous tree Jr Juglans regia English walnut Deciduous tree jc Juniperus chinensis Chinese juniper Evergreen shrub Jv Juniperus virginiana Eastern red-cedar Evergreen tree Kp Koelreuteria paniculata Golden raintree Ornamental tree li Lagerstroemia indica Crape myrtle Deciduous shrub


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Lk Larix kaempferi Japanese larch Deciduous tree ll Ligustrum lucidum Glossy privet Evergreen shrub lgs Ligustrum species Privet species Evergreen shrub Ls Liquidambar styraciflua Sweet gum Deciduous tree Lt Liriodendron tulipifera Tulip poplar Deciduous tree lj Lonicera japonica Japanese honeysuckle Deciduous vine lm Lonicera maackii Amur honeysuckle Deciduous shrub ls Lonicera sempervirens Trumpet honeysuckle Semi-evergreen vine lsp Lonicera species Honeysuckle species Deciduous shrub lta Lonicera tatarica Tartarian honeysuckle Deciduous shrub Mp Maclura pomifera Osage orange Deciduous tree Mac Magnolia acuminata Cucumbertree Ornamental tree Mg Magnolia grandiflora Southern magnolia Evergreen tree Mso Magnolia soulangiana Saucer magnolia Ornamental tree Ms Magnolia stellata Star magnolia Ornamental tree Msp Malus species Ornamental crabapple Ornamental tree Mgl Metasequoia glyptostroboides Dawn redwood Deciduous tree Ma Morus alba White mulberry Deciduous tree Mc Morus alba 'chapparal' Weeping mulberry Ornamental tree Mr Morus rubra Red mulberry Deciduous tree Ns Nyssa sylvatica Black tulpelo Deciduous tree oh Osmanthus heterophyllus Holly osmanthus Evergreen shrub Pt Paulownia tomentosa Empress tree Deciduous tree ph Philadelphus species Mockorange species Deciduous shrub phy Phyllostachys species Bamboo species Evergreen plant Pa Picea abies Norway spruce Evergreen tree Por Picea orientalis? Oriental Spruce Evergreen tree Pp Picea pungens Colorado spruce Evergreen tree Pn Pinus nigra Austrian pine Evergreen tree Ppo Pinus ponderosa Ponderosa pine Evergreen tree Pse Pinus strobus Eastern white pine Evergreen tree Po Platanus occidentalis American sycamore Deciduous tree ptr Poncirus trifoliata Hardy orange Deciduous shrub Pd Populus deltoides Eastern cottonwood Deciduous tree Pav Prunus avium Sweet cherry Ornamental tree Pca Prunus caroliniana Carolina cherrylaurel Evergreen tree pl Prunus laurocerasus Cherry laurel Evergreen shrub Pb Prunus serotina Black cherry Deciduous tree Pk Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan' Kwanzan cherry Ornamental tree Ps Prunus serrullata Japanese cherry Ornamental tree Psp Prunus subhirtella var. pendula Weeping cherry Ornamental tree Pcb Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford' Bradford pear Ornamental tree


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Pc Pyrus communis Common pear Ornamental tree Qac Quercus acutissima Sawtooth oak Deciduous tree Qa Quercus alba White oak Deciduous tree Qb Quercus bicolor Swamp white oak Deciduous tree Qc Quercus coccinea Scarlet oak Deciduous tree Qma Quercus macrocarpa Bur oak Deciduous tree Qm Quercus marilandica Blackjack oak Deciduous tree Qp Quercus palustris Pin oak Deciduous tree Qph Quercus phellos Willow oak Deciduous tree Qpr Quercus prinus Chestnut oak Deciduous tree Qro Quercus robur English oak Deciduous tree Qr Quercus rubra Red oak Deciduous tree Qsp Quercus species Oak species Deciduous tree Qs Quercus stellata Post oak Deciduous tree Qv Quercus velutina Black oak Deciduous tree Rp Robinia pseudoacacia Black locust Deciduous tree rsp Rubus species Bramble species Deciduous shrub Sn Salix "Niobe" Niobe willow Deciduous tree Ss Salix x sepulcralis Weeping willow Deciduous tree Ssp Salix species Willow species Dediduous tree Sa Sassafras albidum Sassafras Deciduous tree Sg Sequoiadendron gigantea Giant sequoia Evergreen tree sta Smilax tamnoides Bristly greenbriar Deciduous vine sa Spiraea alba Meadowsweet Deciduous shrub st Spiraea thunbergii Thunberg spirea Deciduous shrub Sm Stewartia malacodendron Silky stewartia Ornamental tree Sp Stewartia pseudocamellia Japanese stewartia Ornamental tree Sj Styphnolobium japonicum Japanese pagodatree Deciduous tree Td Taxodium distichum Bald cypress Deciduous tree tm Taxus x media Anglojap yew Evergreen shrub To Thuja occidentalis Eastern arborvitae Evergreen tree Tor Thuja orientalis Oriental arborvitae Evergreen tree Ta Tilia americana American linden Deciduous tree Tco Tilia cordata Small leaved linden Ornamental tree Te Tilia x europaea European linden Deciduous tree Tn Torreya nucifera Japanese torreya Evergreen tree tr Toxicodendron radicans Poison ivy Deciduous vine tj Trachelospernum jasminoides Confederate jasmine Everngreen vine Tc Tsuga canadensis Canadian hemlock Evergreen tree Ua Ulmus americana American elm Deciduous tree Up Ulmus procera English elm Deciduous tree Upa Ulmus pumila Siberian elm Dediduous tree


AppA.5


Ur Ulmus rubra Slippery elm Deciduous tree Usp Ulmus species Elm species Deciduous tree vp Viburnum plicatum var.tomentosum Doublefile viburnum Deciduous shrub Vpr Viburnum prunifolium Blackhaw viburnum Ornamental tree va Vitex agnus-castus Chastetree Deciduous shrub vsp Vitis species Grape species Deciduous vine ws Wisteria species Wisteria species Ornamental vine ysp Yucca species Yucca species Evergreen shrub


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Appendix B: St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus

Landscape Chronology

AppB.1


A. INTRODUCTION TO LANDSCAPE CHRONOLOGY The landscape chronology serves as the basis for the development of the history chapters in this St. Elizabeths West Campus Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). This chronology was developed by Robinson & Associates, Inc. through detailed research and document study. Archival repositories were contacted, visits arranged, finding aids consulted, and materials reviewed to determine extent of materials and their relevance to St. Elizabeths. Repositories holding relevant documents were visited to retrieve records concerning the evolution of the property. A full range of document types were sought during this research process to include site specific and contextual archival data that reflected the various periods of landscape development and change. Historic records were obtained as high quality digital scans for use in the report and were organized into a total of six notebooks—one each for the periods 1852-1877, 1877-1899, and 1899-1937, two for the period 1937-2007, and one notebook containing undated photographs. Each notebook consisted of the following

• Compact disks containing the digitized documentation for each period • A written chronology of the development of the campus during the period based on

photographs, drawings, written records, and other historic documentation • A written narrative about the sources of information that informed the chronologies • A spreadsheet of the photographs, drawings, and other historical documents sorted by

period and date for each period • Hard copy printouts of photographs, drawings, and documents arranged according to the

order of the accompanying spreadsheet The chronology of origins and evolution presented in the following sections is the product of this thorough research effort and draws from the sources studied. The chronology includes relevant dates from 1848 to the present, divided into the appropriate eras, as presented previously in the history chapters. Specific landscape features and events are referenced to an alphanumeric locational grid, included on the last page of this appendix (Figure AppB.1). Construction of the Center Building (Location: 1k), for example, is located according to landscape Unit 1 and by grid square “k.”

ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Appendix B: St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Landscape Chronology

AppB.2


Each chronological section begins with a narrative of the specific documentary sources used, followed by the chronology for that period. In general, source material and historical documents included in the following landscape chronology comes from repositories of information considered of primary importance to the CLR. It should be stated that this chronology is based on a thorough research effort, reviewing of all available documentary records. As defined by the National Park Service, a “thorough investigation” is “research in selected published and documentary sources of known or presumed relevance that are readily accessible without extensive travel and that promise expeditious extraction of relevant data”.1 It should be noted that archival documents related to St. Elizabeths are extensive and can be found among the records of several federal agencies. These include the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the St. Elizabeths Hospital Health Sciences Library, the St. Elizabeths Database compiled by ZAI for the General Services Administration, and previous research conducted by Heritage Landscapes and Robinson & Associates, Inc. However, several record groups at the National Archives and the Washington National Records Center were not reviewed due to constraints imposed by the scope of work for the project. Additionally, AIA records were not available for review for the CLR research, but these records were reviewed during the prior effort of building assessment by FMG Architects for the development of the Building, Landscape and Archaeological Assessment, St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus, and are thought to be largely duplicative of other archival collections. B. NICHOLS ERA LANDSCAPE CHRONOLOGY, 1852-1877 B1. Sources For Nichols Era Landscape Chronology The important relationship of St. Elizabeths to the groundbreaking treatment philosophy that emerged during the middle of the nineteenth century can be found in Frank Rives Millikan, “Wards of the Nation: The Making of St. Elizabeths Hospital, 1852-1920” (Ph. D. dissertation, George Washington University, 1990, pages 39-56) and Devrouax & Purnell, “St. Elizabeths Hospital Historic Resources Management Plan” (prepared for the District of Columbia Office of Business and Economic Development, September 1993, 2:3-9, 14-20, and 31-35). Both these documents discuss “moral treatment,” in which patients are guided toward restoration of their rational minds through kind treatment, contemplation of nature, and productive labor. Both also discuss the model asylum of the period, developed by Thomas Kirkbride, and St. Elizabeths’ refinements from this model. The singular position of St. Elizabeths relative to American and European institutions for the treatment of the mentally ill is also described. In addition, Millikan’s dissertation chronicles the individuals mainly responsible for the establishment of the hospital. Devrouax & Purnell highlights the importance of the landscape and outdoor recreation and labor in moral treatment and the central place landscapes and views held in the therapeutic philosophy of St. Elizabeths’ first two superintendents, Charles Nichols and William Godding. Carla Yanni’s paper, “The Linear Plan for Insane Asylums in the United States before 1866” (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 62:1, March 2003), presents a broad contextual discussion of asylum design at this time. Nicholas Pevsner addresses asylums in the hospital chapter of A History of Building Types (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997, 139-158), but makes no mention of linear plans. (His models are the pavilion-type


AppB.3


hospitals of Europe.) Nor does he illustrate hospitals of any kind similar to St. Elizabeths’ linear plan. As a federal facility in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Government Hospital for the Insane received close scrutiny from Congress. The communications between Secretary of the Interior Alexander H.H. Stuart and Superintendent Charles Nichols and Congress are among the most important sources of information about the hospital’s progress. On two occasions, Congress asked the Secretary of the Interior for information on the hospital’s progress. One of these responses, dated December 28, 1852, contains Stuart’s account of the process of selecting the hospital’s site and Nichols’ descriptions of the property and its natural and manmade features. Beginning in fiscal year 1854, Congress required an annual report from St. Elizabeths. From this date until 1869, the annual reports were dated either in October or November of the fiscal year. It appears the reports covered work accomplished until the date of the report, rather than the fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Thereafter, until the end of the period, work covered fell within the fiscal year proper. Annual reports were published separately, as part of the Secretary of the Interior’s annual report, and as documents submitted to Congress. These reports are often quite detailed, and the bulk of the information contained in the chronology comes from these sources. Information on St. Elizabeths during the Civil War was taken from the annual reports and an article by Suryabala Kanhouwa and Jogues R. Prandoni in the Journal of Civil War Medicine 9:1, January-March 2005 (“The Civil War and St. Elizabeths Hospital: An Untold Story of Services from the First Federal Mental Institution in the United States”). Military records, such as those of the War Department, the Quartermaster General, and the Chief of Engineers – all located at the National Archives – were not reviewed for the chronology due to research priorities, expected gain, and the project’s limited research budget. The annual reports sometimes included illustrations, either of the site of St. Elizabeths itself or of the buildings under construction. Four site plans of the hospital reviewed for the chronology all derived from submissions to Congress. These site plans are: 1856 [Site Plan for St. Elizabeths Hospital], Record Group 418, Records of St.

Elizabeths Hospital, no. 4, National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. The National Archives dates this plan as circa 1860. However, it appears to be a manuscript drawing of the illustration that accompanied Report of Superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 1st session, 34th Congress, 1856.

1860 “Topographical Plan of the Grounds of the Government Hospital for the Insane,”

Senate Ex Doc. 1, 36th Congress, 2nd session, 1860, Library of Congress, Geography & Maps Room, Washington, D.C.


AppB.4


“Government Hospital for the Insane: Ground Plan,” Senate Ex Doc. 1, 36th Congress, 2nd session, 1860, Library of Congress, Geography & Maps Room, Washington, D.C.

1873 “Topographical map of the site and lands of the Government Hospital for the

Insane,” October 1873, Record Group 418 no. 12, National Archives. While these illustrations all contain accurate information about buildings, structures, circulation, land use, and planning at the time of their publication, it should be remembered that they also functioned as planning documents and therefore do not represent surveys of existing conditions. This can be seen, for example, in the comparison of the 1860 illustrations and Civil War-era photographs of the area south of the Center Building. While the plans show a Downingesque approach to landscape features such as circulation and plantings, the Civil War pictures show a landscape that has as yet received only minimal treatment. Also valuable is an 1868 plan of the cemetery at St. Elizabeths, showing the plot in the same configuration and orientation as it stands today. (“Plan of Cemetery at the U.S. Hospital for the Insane,” National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic & Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, no. 11, 1868.) Few photographs were discovered that document existing conditions from this period. Of these, one was taken before the Civil War, three during, and none afterward. Inferences in the chronology, therefore, derive almost entirely from written documentation. Two paintings from the period also shed light on the hospital landscape during this period. B2. Nichols Era Landscape Chronology, 1852-1877 1848 June 23. Dorothea Lynde Dix, prominent advocate for enlightened treatment for

the mentally ill, “memorialized,” or submitted written testimony to, Congress in favor of a national institution to care for the insane.2

1850 August 8. A Select Committee of the House of Representatives reported and

recommended passage of a bill establishing a national asylum for the mentally ill.3

1851 May 21. The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions

for the Insane (AMSAII) promulgated 26 propositions relating to the proper siting, plan, and construction of hospitals for mentally ill patients.4

1852 By this date, Thomas Blagden had acquired all the land that would be purchased

for the Government Hospital for the Insane except for two small tracts. One of these, which belonged to John Perkins, lay along what is now Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue.5


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August 31. The U.S. Congress appropriated $100,000 “[t]o enable the Secretary of the Interior, under the direction of the President of the United States, to purchase a site in the neighborhood of Washington, and for the erection, furnishing, and fitting up of an asylum for the insane of the District of Columbia, and of the army and navy of the United States.”6

October 26. On verbal instructions from Secretary of the Interior Alexander H. H. Stuart, Dr. Charles H. Nichols, medical superintendent of Bloomingdale Asylum in New York, began his duties as superintendent of what was to become known as the “Government Hospital for the Insane.”7 November 5. Nichols received written notification of his appointment as superintendent from Stuart. Stuart’s letter stated that President Millard Fillmore had selected Nichols for the duties, reporting that the president “wishes to avail himself of your aid in the selection of a site, which shall combine all the necessary advantages of health, water, drainage, prospect, &c.” He also sought Nichols’ assistance in “planning the buildings, and superintending their erection.”8 Stuart and President Millard Fillmore had already spent several days examining potential sites for the hospital. After Nichols’ appointment, Stuart requested the new superintendent and Dix explore potential sites for the hospital. Nichols and Dix recommended the Blagden farm, which Fillmore and Stuart then examined.9 Stuart noted in his response to a Senate inquiry on the progress on establishing the hospital that site selection was informed by the propositions promulgated by the AMSAII a year earlier. The propoositions were attached to the secretary’s report to Congress. The secretary referred to four of these propositions relating to the site of hospitals for mentally ill patients:

“1st. That every hospital for the insane should be in the country, not within two miles of a large town, and accessible at all seasons. “2d. That no public institution should possess less than one hundred acres of land. “3d. That there should be an abundant supply of water convenient to the asylum. “4th. That a location should be selected which would admit of underground drainage, convenient pleasure-grounds, and an agreeable prospect.”10 December 24. By this date, the date of Nichols’ contribution to Stuart’s response to Congress, the government had purchased Blagden’s farm for $25,000 and an adjacent 8-acre tract for $2,000. The purchased property embraced approximately 185 acres of land.11 Nichols’ described the site of the hospital:


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“The farmer now in charge of the place, with a wife and seven children, has resided upon it six years, and for the last four years about two-thirds of the way from the building spot to the river – a situation much lower, as well as nearer the water, than the building spot itself.”12 (The farmer’s residence may be the building identified as the “Gardener’s house” on the circa 1856 site plan of the hospital.13) Location: 3a, b, e, or f?

“3. Water. – There are on the place two springs of good water, reputed to be

unfailing, whose locations are convenient to the proposed site for the hospital. Two small branches pass through the place to the river, and the river itself presents a dernier resort not likely to fail.” Location: unknown

“The farm purchased is under a high state of cultivation with a large number of

choice, well-set young fruit trees upon it, &c. …” Location: unknown “5. Other points of peculiar adaptation. The proposed site of the hospital

buildings is a broad tableau, suitable for an extended series of buildings. The grounds, as they slope away to the north from the upper tableau towards the river, are broken with several ravines, with broad promontories between them, so as to admit of the regular subdivision of the pleasure-grounds by walls that will not be ‘unpleasantly visible from the building,’ nor interrupt the view of the surrounding country. The view which will be enjoyed by the patients, comprises all of the cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, the heights north of the two former, the Virginia hills on the south, and the Potomac and Eastern Branch for several miles. These features are of immense consequence. This is so well understood among practical persons, that there is no establishment in the country that has not, in some one or more of its published documents, attempted to laud the attractive beauty of the landscape about it. The moral treatment of the insane, with reference to their cure, consists mainly in eliciting an exercise of the attention with things rational, agreeable, and foreign to the subject of delusion; and the more constant and absorbing is such exercise, the more rapid and effectual will be the recovery; but many unbroken hours must elapse each day, during which it is on every account impracticable to make any direct active effort to engage and occupy the patients’ minds. Now, nothing gratifies the taste, and spontaneously enlists the attention of so large a class of persons, as combinations of beautiful natural scenery, varied and enriched by the hand of man; and it may be asserted with much confidence, that the expenditure of a thousand dollars each year, directed to the single object of promoting the healthy mental occupation of one hundred insane persons, with either amusements or labor, would not be so effectual in calling reason to its throne, as will the grand panorama of nature and art, which the peculiar position of the site so happily commands. The shifting incidents of the navigation of the Potomac, the flight of the railroad cars to and from the city, the operations at the navy yard, &c., will continually renew and vary the interest of the scene.


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“About ninety acres of the farm are in high and broken woodland, through which some five miles of winding roads have been made by the late proprietor, that will afford highly agreeable, healthful, and entirely private pleasure-walks for the patients during the warm season.”14 Location: 2w, x; 4r, s; 5i, m, n, q, r, v, w?

December 28. Stuart submitted his response to the Senate’s inquiry. Nichols had by this time developed a plan for the hospital. According to Stuart, “[t]he superintendent has already sketched the outline of the plan of the proposed edifices; but before adopting it finally, it has been deemed expedient to lay it before some of the most skilful [sic] and experienced superintendents of other asylums, for such improvements as they may be able to suggest. When the plans have thus been carefully revised and matured, they will be placed in the hands of Mr. [Thomas U.] Walter, the architect of the extension of the Capitol, in order that he may arrange them so as to blend architectural beauty with practical convenience and utility. It is hoped that, in the course of a few weeks sufficient progress will have been made to justify the advertising for proposals for the execution of the work, to be commenced as early as the season will permit.”15

1854 On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for

the Insane, describing how the propositions of the American Medical Superintendents of Asylums and Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII) regarding proper treatment of mentally ill patients could be implemented, is published by Thomas Story Kirkbride, medical superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. 16 (The hospital plan advocated by the author came to be known as the Kirkbride Plan.)

Construction proceeded on the hospital building: “About one-half of the structure

already commenced [West Wing, Building no. 3, Location: 1k, n, o] is nearly completed and ready for occupation … [T]he walls of the remaining half have been carried up to the middle of the second story, and the first story of a wash, engine, and gas-house has been completed.”17 A “Wash, Gas, & Engine House” is depicted south of the Center Building on the circa 1856 site plan. Location 1o

Structures existing on the site at this time include a fence on the public road (Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue) “made of posts and rails, which are now far advanced in decay.” Also standing on government property are, “besides several inferior laborers’ houses, two cottages – one built of bricks, and the other of wood – very suitable the one for the gardener, and the other for the farmer, but need some repairs, both to preserve them from decay and to render them more comfortable and useful.”18 According to the circa 1856 map of the property the gardener’s house stood down the slope north of the Center Building (Location: 3a, b, e, or f), while the farmer’s house stood next to the public road (Location: 2t).


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December 27. Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland, in response to a request from the House of Representatives, forwarded a report by Superintendent Nichols that included draft legislation “to organize an institution for the insane in the District of Columbia.” Nichols stated that the organization is based on the recommendations of the AMSAII.19

1855 January 15. First patient received.20

March 3. Legislation organizing the “Government Hospital for the Insane” was signed by President Franklin Pierce. The hospital’s purpose was to provide “the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the army and navy of the United States, and of the District of Columbia.” The legislation established a board of visitors to oversee planning and management of the hospital, as well as specifying the duties and powers of the superintendent.21 October 1. “The manufacture of bricks upon the premises [Location: unknown] for the lodge for colored insane [West Lodge; Location: 1o; no longer extant] was commenced the first moment the opening season permitted, and the building itself is now inclosed and just ready to pass into the hands of the plasterers.”22

Farming operations on the hospital site began during the year.23 1856 October 31. The West Lodge is “essentially complete.” The wash, engine, and

gas-house (and probably the gas-holder) are functioning by this date, and foundation stone has been delivered to the hospital wharf.24 In his 1860 annual report, the superintendent described the wash, engine, and gas-house, constructed of brick, as “an extensive laundry, one engine, one engine and pump, one boiler, one fan, one gas and one machine room, and a vault holding five hundred (500) tons of coal. The laundry occupies the whole of the second story, and has a drying yard attached to it.”25

Construction on the Center Building (Building no. 1, Location: 1k) and on a brick barn (no longer extant, Location: 1o) is begun. The barn is scheduled to be completed “by the end of the present month.” Earth dug to build foundations of the Center building is used to grade “in front of” – presumably north of – the completed West Wing.26 Accompanying the annual report is a plan of the hospital grounds that includes the main building, twin lodges for African Americans, a “Gasometer,” a “Wash, Gas & Engine House,” two residences, and a wharf on the river. The circulation system – comprising an entrance lane from a gate on the public road, a large loop north of the Center Building, and a road down the slope to one of the residences – is much simpler than later plans for the hospital.27


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November 29. Ann M. Mattingly, an indigent white female, died at the hospital. Records indicate that she was buried in the “Hospital Cemetery.” Historian Paul Sluby, Sr., has concluded that Mattingly was the first person buried in what is now known as the Civil War Cemetery at St. Elizabeths.28

1857 February 7. Legislation was signed clarifying the process of admission to

Government Hospital for the Insane. The legislation cleared the way for the admission of criminally insane patients, patients not residing in Washington, and private patients.29

October 1. The stable (previously described as the barn) and mechanics’ shop (no longer extant, Location: 1o) are completed. The mechanics’ shop provides a “dormitory for farm hands, and rooms with appropriate machinery and tools equally for the indoor employment of the patients, and for the construction and repair of household furniture and implements of husbandry.” The hospital’s livestock includes 25 cows, two pairs of oxen, 50 pigs, and an unknown number of horses.30

Congress appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of agricultural and horticultural

instruments and the improvement of the grounds. During the summer and fall of 1857, $2,000 of that appropriation was spent “in the proper enclosure and subdivision of the farm by fences, and in the purchase of manures and implements of husbandry, from which material agricultural benefits have already been derived.”31

The manufacture of bricks for further construction on the hospital continued:

“[U]pwards of 1,200,000 bricks have already been made since the opening of the season, and the number of raw bricks on hand, in the drying sheds, justifies the expectation that not far from 2,000,000, in all will have been made at its close.”32

1858 Construction of the brick perimeter wall began in May. By October 1, “100.86

rods have been completed on the public road, which includes entrance lane, 30 feet wide and 150 feet deep, and periphery of gate keeper’s lodge. The single and double gates are also made and hung. … The foundation of this wall is from two to four feet deep and two feet wide, and laid with blue stone in cement; the superstructure composed of hard bricks, is 13 ½ inches wide, and eight feet two inches high, and has leaning pilasters supporting both sides, eight feet apart on each side, but alternating with each other in such a way that the running distance between two pilasters is only three feet five inches; the whole is surmounted with single coping bricks, laid crosswise, which project from each face of the wall one inch and raise its height to eight feet eight inches, and are of such shape that they readily shed water and form a handsome finish.”33 (Location: 3l, 1l, and/or 1p)

Since the superintendent’s previous annual report, “335.15 rods of boundary fence have been made, 115.15 rods of which are on the public road, and the remaining


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220 rods comprise the entire southwest division line running from the public road to the low water mark on the Anacostia River. The fence is six feet high; the posts are set not less than three feet in the earth; and there is a running base-board ten inches wide, besides two rails to which vertical pales are nailed, and a facsia piece and a weather cap.” (Location: 2t, x, 5q, r, v, w) Fences for subdividing farm fields are also constructed; all told, two miles of fencing was constructed between October 1, 1857, and October 1, 1858.34

An extension of the hospital stable, for which an appropriation of $4,000 had been made, was begun and was expected to be completed by November 30.35 Appropriations totaling $4,000 were requested in the previous superintendent’s report for “a building for the protection and care of neat stock, swine, and fowls” and for “a shed … to shelter from the weather both stock, when not stabled, and farm carts and wagons when not in use, and a manure shed.” The building for protection of livestock, pigs, and chickens was to be built of bricks, 100 by 20 by 20 feet and attached “to the south end of the feed room of the new stable, so that the two buildings will form the north and west sides of the stock yard.” The shed to shelter stock, carts, and wagons was to be built on the east side of the barnyard, while the manure shed was to stand “near the centre of the yard.”36 (Location: 1o) In the superintendent’s 1860 annual report, the brick stable complex would be described as: “connected but distinct stable accommodations for twelve (12) horses, thirty-two (32) neat cattle, one hundred (100) swine, and two hundred (200) fowls, including lying-in, calve, tool, grain, carriage, slaughter, and feed-rooms, a root cellar, large fodder lofts, approved machinery, propelled by steam power, for cutting fodder, crushing and grinding corn in the ear, and for grinding clean grain of all descriptions, and steam kettles for cooking food for stock.”37

1859 October 1. The Center Building and West Wing were expected to be completed

before the end of 1859. Construction was already in progress on the East Wing (Building no. 4).38

Construction of the brick perimeter wall was completed “from the public road on the northeastern boundary of the hospital tract, to the river, and, from its termination at high-water mark, a very substantial stone wall, nine feet high, has been carried one hundred and fifty feet into the river, or about fifty feet beyond ordinary low-water mark.” (Location: b, c, g, h) (From this date until 1869, then, when the brick and stone perimeter wall was completed on three sides of the hospital grounds, perimeter enclosure on the public road included both a brick wall and the wood fence completed the previous year.) In addition, “The stone foundation of the wall for inclosing the grounds is being laid on the south side of the hospital buildings, and the brick superstructure will be continued whenever the exigencies of the more pressing parts of the work will allow.”39 (Location: 2t, x, 5q, r, v, w?)

1860 June 1. The hospital’s organic act was amended to provide admittance of

members of the revenue cutter service.40


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October 1. The Center Building and the “contiguous sections of the wings” were occupied. The second gas-holder (no longer extant, location: 1o) had been built, the eastern wards (Building 4, location: 1k) completed, and the east lodge (Building no. 30, location: 1p) was under roof and expected to be completed before the end of the calendar year.41 The gas-holder was described as “stronger and more complete” than the first gas-holder and of greater storage capacity.42

Improvement of the grounds (for which an appropriation was requested in the

previous annual report) was begun. In the southwestern section of the hospital tract, “several miles of winding carriage roads have already been laid out and roughly graded. Where the forest was too dense for a large and handsome growth, the surplus trees have already been carefully cut out, and used as firewood or sawed into lumber. [Location: 2w, x; 4r, s; 5i, m, n, q, r, v, w?] Two of the handsomest wards in the hospital have just been finished and furnished, one with cedar and the other with chestnut, which grew upon the premises.”43 The transcription of a circa 1928 tour of the hospital stated that a white oak tree was planted near the flagpole inside the main gate during this year.44 (Location: 1l, at the east end of the current oak allee) While there are some difficulties with this report – the tree was supposedly planted by a soldier before he left to fight in the Civil War, which did not begin until 1861 – the story may record the approximate period when the oak allee was established.

Improvement of the hospital farm continued: “When this tract of land came into

the possession of the government, about one-half of it, or one hundred acres, were under cultivation. Since that time its productiveness has been increased at least fifty percent, and about twenty acres have been reclaimed from the forest, and put under cultivation.”45 Location: unknown

Included in this annual report and submitted to Congress are two published plans

for the hospital, a “Topographical Plan of the Grounds” and a “Ground Plan.” The Ground Plan, which shows the Center Building and the area in its immediate vicinity was “designed by C.H. Nichols.”46 (Documentary and photographic evidence indicate that the plans had not yet been fully implemented.)

1861 October 1. Improvements to the hospital include repair and painting of the

gardener’s and farmer’s houses, outbuildings, and fences; extension of the stable for storage of hay and other fodder and protection of farm vehicles; enclosure of two sides of the farm yard with a brick wall, and improvement of the grounds.47 Location: 1o (The additions to the stable appear to be the completion of the project begun in 1858.) Since the stable and its extensions were intended to “form the north and west sides of the stock yard,” according to the 1858 report, it may be that the brick wall mentioned in this annual report enclosed the remaining two sides. The 1861 report later states that “[t]he stables and stable-yards are now complete.”


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Regarding improvements to the grounds, the report says that “[t]he brick kilns and

lumber piles of eight years standing have been removed from the front of the hospital edifice; the grounds have, for the most part, been brought to a proper grade; some progress has been made in graveling the walks and drives; a thousand trees have been planted and twenty-five acres have been fertilized, subsoiled, or underdrained, and sown with grass seed; and besides the fine crops of grain earlier in the season, we are this autumn rewarded with a rich green landscape.” The superintendent also reports that an ice house will be built “by the arrival of the winter solstice.”48 Location: unknown

During the summer of 1861, male African American patients were moved from

the West Lodge to the East Lodge, and the West Lodge began to be used by the navy as a hospital for “sick and wounded seamen of the Chesapeake and Potomac fleets.” The navy would eventually also make use of the gardener’s house as part of its hospital facilities.49 In October, the army began to use the recently completed East Wing of the main building as a general hospital.50 Shortly after the beginning of the war, “[t]he Ordnance Bureau of the Navy Department occupied about 10 acres of the northwestern part of the hospital grounds, as the site of extensive experimental batteries.”51 Location: a, e, i?

1862 October 1. “Hydraulic works, including the erection of a substantial stone and

brick pump and boiler house and smoke stack at the river,” were constructed by this date to bring “water from the Anacostia river to the iron tanks in the attics of the hospital edifice.” Location: a, e In addition, pumps were attached to one of the engines of the hydraulic works and pipe laid “to raise all the drainage of the house, stable, and laundry and distribute it over the fields for cultivation.”52 Location of pipe: unknown

The accommodations for the army hospital were increased by 25 percent during

the summer, in part “by pitching some hospital tents in the grounds.”53 Location: 1o

1863 January. A shop for the manufacture of artificial legs was established in “rooms

adjacent to those occupied as a general army hospital.”54 October 1. The “machine shop,” formerly known as the “mechanics’ shop,” was

enlarged and outfitted by this date in order “to gather and as many facilities as practicable for the execution of the necessary repairs and improvements in and about the hospital buildings, and to make comfortable workrooms for the patients.”55 Location: 1o

After a delay of two years, work resumed on completion of the perimeter wall

around the hospital. Location: 2t, 2x, 2w? Due to the closure of the quarry north of Georgetown, “silicious conglomerate” stone for the wall, rather than blue


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gneiss, was quarried by hospital staff and patients at “a property in the near neighborhood of the hospital.” The superintendent notes that development in the area as a result of the war – a cavalry depot, defensive fortifications, and a race track – have made completion of the wall an important task.56

“During the past year the farm, lawns, and groves and walks, have been much

improved by the farm hands, in the intervals between the busy seasons of seeding, cultivating, and harvesting, and are becoming highly productive and ornamental.”57

1864 June 24, 1864. The first recorded military interment in the Civil War Cemetery

took place on this date.58

October 1. “The general army hospital opened at this institution in October 1861, and conducted by its medical officers, was discontinued at the close of the year just expired to make room for the insane, who had then reached the maximum number the present buildings were designed to accommodate. With it the manufactory of artificial limbs for soldiers, referred to in a previous report, was removed to the city.” The navy continued to use the West Lodge and the gardener’s house as a hospital.59

During the year, the public road running from the Navy Yard bridge past the

hospital (now Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue) was improved, the expense being shared by the District government and the military. “The road is sixty (60) feet wide and well graveled. Its grades are easy. The necessary lateral curves are long and graceful. The bridge and culverts are built of stone and bricks, laid in cement, and are handsome and durable. This noble improvement does great credit to the liberality and taste of all parties concerned in effecting it, and gives a convenience and dignity to the approach to the hospital from the city, which were sadly wanting in the previous rude, narrow, and tortuous wagon path, with steep descents, as well as ascents in its course, and open rivulets crossing it.”60

Congress also approved a land exchange that removed a private owner from land

within the hospital’s planned perimeter. The hospital exchanged “the southeast corner of the present farm (Location: south of 2x) for 2 ½ acres “interrupting the mid-frontage on the public road.” Location: 2t? (This land is probably one of the two tracts along the public road that the government had not previously acquired.) The superintendent expected the exchange to take place “before the close of the present season.”61

1865 November 1. The navy had vacated the gardener’s house by this date, but still

made use of the West Lodge for hospital facilities.62 The land exchange authorized in the previous year was accomplished, “except the

formality of an exchange of title deeds.”63


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1866 July 13. Legislation was approved allowing civilian employees of the

quartermaster’s or the subsistence departments of the army to be admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane.”64

October 1. “The lodge for colored men [West Lodge], occupied as a general naval hospital since the spring of 1861, was vacated on the day of this report by the transfer of the seamen then under treatment to the handsome new naval hospital building, just completed in Washington. As soon as some needful repairs can be effected the colored men will be transferred to it from the first story of the lodge for colored women, and the welfare of both sexes will be promoted by their entire separation, and the additional room and freedom each will enjoy. We were much pleased with the manifestation of good will by the steward and nurses of the naval hospital at the breaking up of its organization here, by giving to this institution their pretty boat, completely furnished with oars, cushions, and awnings.”65

The enlargement of the hospital’s wharf was begun: “The stone for the extension of the abutment of the hospital wharf has been delivered, and most of the additional wall laid. Upon examination, it was found that all the old piles were too much decayed for further use, and entire new white-oak piles, forty (40) in number, have been cut on the grounds of the institution, and just been driven by a steam pile-driver courteously furnished from the navy yard.”66 Location: a

Work continued on completing the perimeter wall: “The stone for the wall enclosing the grounds is quarried at a point on a neighboring property about one mile distant, by a party of out-door attendants and patients, and hauled by the hospital teams; and, on account of the farm improvements and cultivation, both of which have been more extensive the past season than in that of any one previous year, it was necessary to defer the devotion of any considerable force to this work till the first of October. Two parties of stone masons are laying the wall by contract, and are making good progress.”67 (It may be that the stone portion of the wall is begun by this date, since no further mention of the use of bricks (except for the coping) is mentioned in later annual reports.)

1867 October 1. Extensive work on the hospital grounds is reported during the year

ending September 30, 1867: “An orchard, containing upwards of seven acres, has been enclosed by two thousand one hundred and fifty-six running feet of substantial paling fence seven feet high, and underdrained with upwards of three thousand feet of tiles laid three feet deep. Eleven hundred grape vines have been set in the orchard, with trellises of locust posts and galvanized wire, and a considerable number of fruit trees and shrubs of the choicest varieties have been planted. [Location: 3f?] Roads, meadows, and lawns have been underdrained, and large amounts of stable manure and other fertilizers have been incorporated into the soil of the farm, garden, and orchard. [Location: unknown] … Several


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springs in the pleasure grounds of the patients have been opened, walled, covered, and the water conducted in indestructible earthen pipes to fountains and drinking reservoirs [Location: 5i, m, q, r, v, w, 4n, r, 2w?].”68

November 1. “The rebuilding of the hospital wharf on an extended plan,

authorized by an appropriation for that and other purposes, and referred to in my last report, has just been completed in a very substantial and durable manner.”69

Work on the perimeter wall continued along the southwest boundary of the

hospital: “The quarrying of stone for the wall enclosing the grounds of the hospital, by a party of out-door attendants and patients, and the hauling it to the line of the wall, have been uninterruptedly continued through the year. The laying of the wall in a workmanlike manner and on reasonable terms suffered no interruption in the course of the year, except that occasioned by the cold of winter. Two thousand three hundred and six (2,306) running feet of the wall have been built in the course of the year. It is now being carried across a ravine sixty (60) feet deep, one hundred and sixty-one (161) feet wide at the bottom, and three hundred and fifty-one feet across at the top.”70

By this date, the government purchased 60 acres of land in a discontiguous tract to be used as pasture for livestock. (The tract would come to be known as the Stevens Farm.)71

1868 The 1868 Annual Report describes how the name St. Elizabeths came to be used

for the Government Hospital for the Insane: “Some curiosity has been expressed to know why the site of this hospital is called St. Elizabeth, and the institution sometimes styled the St. Elizabeth Hospital, and as that praenomen has come into pretty general use, it may be well to here make a record of the reason of it. The site is part of a tract of 750 acres which has been titled the St. Elizabeth tract from the original European settlement of this part of the country. The name appears in all the title deeds of this tract, and of every portion of it, and the adjacent lands, from that day to this. As none of the proprietors of the other subdivisions of the original patent were in the familiar use of the term as a local designation when a general army hospital was opened on the grounds at the beginning of the late ware, it was named the St. Elizabeth Hospital, and it was soon perceived that most of the more intelligent and sensitive of the patients of the parent institution (those under treatment for mental diseases) had fallen into the use of the same name to designate the establishment of which they were inmates, in order to avoid the use, both by themselves and their friends, in speaking and writing, of the word insane, which forms a part of the legal title of the hospital. The natural and innocent sensibility that thus led to the adoption of a familiar name that does not express the special character of the hospital, has often been exhibited by the inmates of most American institutions for the insane, and has been met by such concessions as the circumstances of each case permitted, and it is thought to have been a happy circumstance that gave this establishment a designation of so much beauty


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and of such sacred association, and that is entirely agreeable to the parties most interested.”72

May 30. A survey was conducted on this day of the cemetery at the Government Hospital for the Insane. 73 (The cemetery’s L shape, with the short leg of the L facing north, matches that of the current Civil War Cemetery.) Location: 5i

October 31, 1868. Work on the grounds included “under-draining, manure, and fencing.”74 By this date, 1,827 feet of the perimeter wall had been built. Hospital attendants and patients continued to quarry and haul the stone for the wall until the beginning of the summer, when the quarry was exhausted. The hospital subsequently purchased 1,500 perches of “rubble Seneca stone” from the Maryland Free Stone M&M Company. About three-quarters of this stone was “laid in the wall running in a southeasterly direction between the hospital grounds and the lands of the Gisboro manor.” The Gisboro land lay west of the hospital, where the Congress Heights neighborhood is now located. 75

The Ordnance Bureau of the Navy removed its “numerous guns and

appurtenances” from an area of the northwest grounds of the hospital that it had occupied since the beginning of the Civil War. Nichols expected to underdrain, fertilize, and cultivate this land.76

By this date, repair of three existing cottages on the hospital grounds was

underway. (The 1860 Topographical Plan of the Grounds shows three building complexes described as houses. One is the gardener’s house down the slope from the Center Building near the wharf. Location: 3e, 3f The other two are called “Farm houses” and stand next to the public road. Location: 2t, 2x The 1860 plan also shows buildings on the lot land then belonging to J. Perkins and acquired by the hospital in 1865.77

1869 October 30. Improvements to the hospital farmland and “pleasure grounds” have

continued: “The farm has returned an ample percent upon the large expenditures that have been made in under-draining and fertilizing it. It has supplied an abundance of fruit, vegetables, milk, and pork of the best quality, for the whole house, and a large amount of poultry and eggs for the sick and delicate. … The pleasure grounds have been much improved by under-draining, grading, the making of roads and walks; and their own great diversity and beauty, and the diversity and beauty of the extensive views they command, have largely contributed to the contentment as well as the positive enjoyment of the household.”78

The wall was completed on three sides of the hospital: “Five hundred and one

linear feet of the wall inclosing the original grounds of the hospital have been built since the date of my last report, and the wall proper is now complete, except for the river front. Thirty-three hundred and nineteen feet lack the coping of


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bricks molded for the purpose, and the ‘pointing’ generally required after the first winter’s exposure of new work of the kind. The bricks (10,134 in number) necessary to complete the coping have been made and hauled along the line of the wall, ready to be laid. The line of the wall on the southwestern side of the premises runs over exceedingly uneven land, and the grades of the wall were made fewer and less abrupt than the natural inequalities of the surface. Although much grading and underdraining were necessarily done when the wall was built, considerably more grading is necessary, in some places, to give a water fall from the foundation, and in other to support it by embankment.”79

It seems likely that two gates existed in the wall along the public road. A northern entrance, by Gatehouse no. 1 (Building no. 21), was established by 1858, when the brick wall and “entrance lane” were completed, according to the annual report for that year. Evidence of the second gate can be found in the 1887 annual report, which requests funds for “a gardener’s cottage and porter’s lodge at the lower hospital entrance.”80 The location of this “lower” entrance is uncertain. The 1873 “Topographical Map of the Site and Lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane” depicts a road that extends south from the hospital complex to a gate essentially above the current underpass to the East Campus. (Location: 2x) No other plan, map, or survey of the hospital shows this road or gate. Several other illustrations, including the 1895 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, indicate an entrance south of Home (Building no. 36; Location: 1p) An 1899 plat depicts a third entrance south of the gate near the Home building.81

The District’s Board of Commissioners of Metropolitan Police extended their

telegraph system into southeast Washington during the year. The area telegraph station was located on St. Elizabeths property.82 (Location: unknown)

November. A 150-acre farm, known as Shepherd Farm and lying across the public road east of the Blagden Farm tract, was purchased with appropriations made by Congress on March 3, 1869. The land was purchased for grazing milk and beef cattle. At the time of purchase it was “inclosed by a rail fence, much of which is old and poor.”83

1870 June 30.84 During the year the appropriation of $6,000 “to improve and increase the cottage accommodations of the families of the employés of the hospital” was released to the superintendent and work began.85 (The previous year’s Annual Report stated that the funds were planned for two new cottages, in addition to the three existing houses on what is now the west campus. The 1869 report also stated that one or both of the new residences would likely be constructed on “the land lately acquired by the government” – that is, Shepherd Farm.86)

Improvements during the year “have mainly consisted of under-draining,

grubbing, grading, fencing, and fertilizing some pieces of land which were otherwise unproductive, and of increasing the available water supply near the


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hospital building, and thus rendering the expensive operation of pumping interior water from the river unnecessary except in times of extraordinary drought. The latter improvement consists of a brick reservoir (now the third) and fourteen hundred running feet of aqueducts of earthen pipe connecting it with two small but remarkably constant springs, whose average daily yield of excellent water throughout ordinary years is about eight thousand gallons. The pipe is indestructible and laid deep and well, and there is no obvious reason why it should not last in good order for a thousand years.”87 Location: unknown

1871 June 30. “The extension of the hospital, authorized by an appropriation made at

the second session of the last Congress, is now substantially completed and occupied. It was intended to accommodate 100 patients in the three principal stories, and in the basement to afford lodging-rooms and a hall for single resident mechanics and farm hands, and tailoring and shoemaking shops and store-rooms. In the crowded state of the house, it at once became necessary to test the maximum capacity of the new building, and we find that its three wards will afford comfortable and healthful accommodations for 129 patients of the quiet chronic class.” The extension described here is the now-demolished Dawes building.88 Location: 1o

“The principal improvements of the year are of the most permanent character. They consist of the building of several heavy stone walls across ravines, to prevent gullying and landslides in wet seasons; the resurveying and plotting of the Shepherd farm, and the setting of fourteen granite and freestone monuments in its boundary lines; the making of farm roads and building of one substantial stone bridge; the continuation of the clearing, grading, and underdraining of agricultural lands, and the introduction of a set of eccentric washing-machines, and an additional mangle into the laundry.” 89 (The location of the stone walls built across ravines, the stone bridge, the roads, and the improvement of agricultural land is unclear.)

Efforts to improve the therapeutic areas of the hospital grounds seem to have

slowed: “About five miles of roads and walks have been laid off in the park and other exercise grounds of the patients, and the attempt has been made to drain, grade, and gravel them with the ordinary farm force during the winter, but the farm and garden hands and teams having been needed and occupied in underdraining and improving the farms and gardens as such, but little has been accomplished in road and walk making; and, when not engaged in raising the annual crops, the farm force will all be needed for farm improvements for several years to come.”90

1872 “The systematic work of grading, under-draining, and fertilizing the agricultural

lands and of improving the farm-stock, has been continued,” presumably on all three tracts of land owned by the hospital. Work also began on the river wall along the Anacostia and on new fencing to enclose Shepherd Farm. 91


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St. Elizabeths acquired more land during 1872, according to the 1873 Annual Report: “Soon after the preparation of the last report, the hospital came into possession of the tract of 29 acres, 1 rood and 2 4/10 perches of agricultural land, for the purchase of which Congress had made the requisite appropriation, and more recently the United States has received the gratuitous deed of one-third of an acre of land lying adjacent to the northern boundary of the enclosed grounds, and embracing a deep, narrow ravine, the control of which by the hospital authorities will enable them to prevent the undermining of the boundary wall at that point. There are now owned by the United States and devoted to the objects of the hospital a little upwards of 419 acres of land, about 360 of which form one nearly complete parallelogram. The remainder is a separate tract, conveniently situated for grazing or the cultivation of the staple annual crops.”92 (The 29-acre tract may be the second unacquired track lying along the public road. The smaller tract may be the square of land outside the hospital boundary depicted outside the hospital wall on the 1873 “Topographical Map of the Site and Lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane” near what is now the greenhouse area.)

1873 June 30. “One-half of the river-wall” was built by this date.93 Another extension of the main hospital building, costing $37,800, was

completed.94 The extension is described in the 1871 Annual Report, when the request for funding was made, as a three-story building connected to “the western section of the west wing of the original edifice.”95 The extension was later called “Garfield” (now Building no. 5). Location: 1n By this date, the hospital had “fitted up” four rooms formerly used as coal storage to function as dining rooms and workshops. “For some years,” since these conversions, “most of the coal used in heating the house” has been deposited “in a huge, unsightly pile a short distance outside the windows of the patients’ rooms.”96 (While the exact location of the coal yard is uncertain, it seems likely to have been behind the Center Building. Location: 1k or 1o)

October. By this date, track for the Baltimore, Washington, and Alexandria branch rail line had been laid on trestles in the Anacostia River. On the 1873 “Topgraphical Map of the Site and Lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane,” the track crosses the hospital wharf.97 With one exception, civilian burials in the Civil War Cemetery ended during the year.98

1874 May 20. Private James Clary died at the hospital and was buried in the Civil War

Cemetery. His was the last military internment on the West Campus.99


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June 23. Legislation was approved that allowed for convicted criminals who become mentally ill during their confinement to be admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane. This new class of patients could come from any United States court, whether held in state or federal prison anywhere in the country.100 June 30. Fifty acres of Shepherd Farm was planted with asparagus, rhubarb, and small fruits by this date, and the fields were fertilized with bone dust and manure. Tile drains and farm roads were also built.101 A “large and very superior stock and hay barn” was also constructed, either at Shepherd or Stevens farm.102 The 1872 Annual Report requested funds for a stock barn “on one of the outlying farms, and a hay-barn on the other.”103 It appears that the two buildings were combined.

“A large coal-shed” was built during the fiscal year. (Based on the superintendent’s justification for constructing the coal vault in the 1873 Annual Report – that the vault would replace the pile of coal within view of the patients, the shed may have stood near the Center Building, although its exact location is uncertain. The coal shed is not, however, the vault the superintendent requested funding for, since the 1874 Annual Report reiterates that funding request.) Also during the fiscal year, “a portion of the pavements about the house [Center Building] have been relaid, and some altogether new pavements have been put down.”104 (These pavements may refer to the brick apron around the Center Building since only gravel had been previously mentioned as surfacing for walks and drives.) Work on reconstructing and enlarging the hospital wharf of oak pilings and planks was completed during the year. The gardener’s house, described as “a brick building that lodges from twenty to twenty-five of the farm and garden hands” was “reconstructed by raising the walls and giving more height to the chambers, with a new roof, including dormer windows.” Roads and walks were “underdrained and graveled in the exercise grounds of the patients.”105 The gatehouse (Building no. 21) was completed during the year.106 (Location: 3l)

1875 June 30. An extension south of the Center Building (Building no. 2) was

completed, and the West Lodge was enlarged. 107

“[T]wo frame dwellings” were moved “to sites more eligible than those they previously occupied.” (Since the gardener’s house was enlarged in fiscal year 1874, the two houses that were moved probably refer to the other two “cottages” for which an appropriation for repairs and improvements was made in fiscal year 1870. The two dwellings stood near the public road before they were moved and had been labeled “Farm houses” in the 1860 “Topographical Plan of the Grounds of the Government Hospital for the Insane.”108 It seems likely that the two frame


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dwellings were moved to the Shepherd Farm at this time. The 1872 Annual Report reiterated its request for an appropriation for employee housing, since it had not been expended and had reverted to the government. Due to the acquisition of the Shepherd and Stevens farms, the budget request explained that it was “desirable to move and rebuild the cottages in question.”109 On the 1873 “Topographical Map of the Site and Lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane” one of two buildings that appears to be labeled “Farmers & Gardeners Cottages” stands on the Shepherd Farm property. The second labeled building stands in the known location of the Gardener’s House. The “Plat Showing Number and Location of Buildings” that accompanied the 1895 Annual Report labels a building on the Shepherd Farm “Old Farm House.”110 The site to which the third dwelling was moved is uncertain, but the 1895 plat shows only one employee residence on the Bladgen Farm site – called the Garden House and located in the expected location down the slope from the Center Building. Three “employees cottages” are located on the Shepherd Farm in the 1895 plat. During fiscal year 1875, a windmill was constructed “to supply water to several families of employés living upon the premises.”111 If the Gardener’s House had been fitted up for 20 to 25 farm hands, and the two farm houses moved to the Shepherd Farm for employees with families, this windmill may also have been located east of the public road.) Improvements to the grounds included “the continuation of the grading, drainage, and fertilization of the extensive agricultural and exercise grounds.” To provide for fire protection, the hospital established another steam pump in its utility complex south of the Center Building, laid water pipe “nearly around the entire buildings,” and added 12 fire hydrants to those already in use.112 In his estimates for future needs, Nichols requested $395,000 for construction of a separate building for female patients. Due to overcrowding that resulted from an expansion of categories of patients that the hospital was required to accept, wards intended to be used for female patients had had to be used for male patients. In an effort to continue the congregate care embodied in the Center Building, Nichols envisioned a second hospital building derived from the Kirkbride plan. Architect of the Capital Edward Clark rendered the design. Since Nichols did not request funds for purchasing new land, it seems likely that the hospital for women was intended to be located on existing farm land. The acquisition of Shepherd Farm in 1869 perhaps freed, in Nichols’ mind, former farmland south of the Center Building for new construction. Although the separate facility for women was never approved, hospital construction did take place on this land during the superintendency of William W. Godding.113

1876 June 30. By this date, goods had begun to be delivered to St. Elizabeths’ wharf

by the railroad that crossed northwest of the hospital on trestles in the Anacostia River. 114


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“[A]n extensive filter was constructed, and the reservoir, from which the water is raised, filled from the river through the filter. … The springs near the hospital continue to furnish about 15,000 gallons, or one-fourth of the daily consumption, of as pure water as can be desired or anywhere found.” In addition, “[t]he old pump and boiler have also been thoroughly overhauled and set in the new pump-house.”115 (This pump-house and the filter may have been located near the wharf (location: a), since the plat accompanying the 1895 Annual Report refers to a building in this location as the “Old Pump House.”) Appropriations were “not quite sufficient” to complete the river wall, but Superintendent Nichols considered the wall close enough to completion not to require an additional appropriation.116 The 1869 Annual Report, in which funds were first requested for the river wall, described the area and plans for the wall as follows: “The water is quite shallow on the river shore, which declines very gradually to a ‘swash’ channel from four to six feet deep at flood tide, and at low tide considerable grassy surfaces are bare, and exhale a miasm which renders the river shore the only unhealthy part of the grounds. The intention is to place the wall a little below low-water mark, where it will obstruct the alluvial wash from the hills towards the channel, and gradually redeem from water and marsh between three and four acres of land, and render the shore salubrious by presenting either constant water or well-drained earth surfaces.”117 In the 1873 Annual Report, the river wall is described as “a ‘sea’ or ‘retaining’ wall, which does not obstruct the view of the external scenery.”118

“A subterranean coal-vault of masonry has been constructed in the rear of the east heating-boilers, 60 feet by 27 feet on the ground, and 10 feet 8 inches high. It removes the necessity of a dark, dirty pile of coal, which for years has obstructed the view of a cheerful landscape by the patients of two wards. The pavement over it is level with the surrounding grounds, and coal-carts drive upon it and empty their contents directly through openings in the crown of the vault, with the saving of the cost of one handling.”119 Location: 1o, probably behind the East Wing

1877 Dr. Charles H. Nichols resigned as superintendent of the Government Hospital for

the Insane to head Bloomingdale, a private asylum in New York. He was succeeded at St. Elizabeths by Dr. William Whitney Godding.120

A peach orchard was established during the year.121 Later annual reports associate the orchard with a vineyard. The 1873 “Topographical Map of the Site and Lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane” locates a vineyard northwest of the Center Building, on the lower part of the slope toward the river (3e, f)


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C. GODDING ERA LANDSCAPE CHRONOLOGY, 1877-1899 C1. Sources For Godding Era Landscape Chronology The problem of overcrowding at St. Elizabeths began shortly after the Civil War. A potential resolution of this problem, especially in public hospitals like St. Elizabeths that depended on state legislatures or Congress for funding, was the construction of smaller buildings rather than large institutional structures. Acquiring funding for these buildings was often easier than for larger projects. This new building type was designed on a residential scale to provide a home-like setting for the chronic insane. At St. Elizabeths, the transition to a “cottage-plan” approach altered the spatial organization of the hospital and led to the placement of the new buildings in groups. A particular group of buildings may have had its own distinct setting, but all were placed in a landscape of turf and trees. The change from the congregate care of moral treatment to the segregate care that characterized detached or “cottage-plan” asylum architecture is reviewed in Millikan, 101-105 and 117-130 and in Devrouax & Purnell, 2:9-11, 20-24, and 35-37. Both these works bring together primary material and publications from the time period, as well as subsequent evaluations of the influences on these changes. Segregate care facilities coincided with the development of a variety of medical treatments for the mentally ill, including drug therapy and hydrotherapy, as well as physiological investigation into the causes of mental illness. While these developments had no real effect on the landscape during this period, the shift away from moral treatment and its emphasis on the healing power of nature and outdoor labor implied a change in the purpose of the landscape. At St. Elizabeths, the beginnings of a scientific approach to treatment can be seen in the construction of the Rest (Building no. 40) and the appointment of Dr. I.W. Blackburn in 1884 as the first full-time pathologist in an American asylum. Suryabala Kanhouwa and Kenneth Gorelick address the importance of Blackburn’s work, as well as subsequent pathological research at the hospital in “A Century of Pathology at Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C. (Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 121, January 1997). The annual reports of the hospital and their accompanying illustrations provide a wealth of material documenting the development of the hospital during the administration of Dr. William W. Godding. The annual reports during the period continued to discuss in some detail the work done during the period and the hospital’s needs. In requesting appropriations for work at St. Elizabeths, the annual reports also often described the circumstances that justified those requests, adding to our knowledge of conditions at the hospital. The work reviewed in the annual reports formed the basis for the chronology during this period. Plans of the hospital during Godding’s tenure: 1883 “Government Hospital for the Insane Ground Plan,” 1883, Record Group 418, no.

15, National Archives.


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1895 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing number and location of buildings,” Annual Report, 1894-95, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1895

“Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing number and location of buildings on Home Tract,” Annual Report, 1894-95, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1895

1898 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing number and location of

buildings,” Annual Report, 1897-98, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1898

“Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home Tract,” Annual Report, 1897-98, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1898

1899 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing location and number of

buildings on Home Tract, plate 1,” April 1899, Record Group 418, no. 16, National Archives

All of the plans depict building placement and roadways. Plans from all four years show the buildings on the plateau, with numbered keys to indicate building use. The 1895 and 1898 annual reports also include site plans that show the entire West Campus in the context of the hospital’s other properties (Shepherd and Stevens farms). None of the plans from this period depict topography or vegetation. The 1898 annual report does include more than two dozen photographs of the hospital’s buildings and grounds. These photographs depict the landscaping around individual buildings, such as the fence and trees around the Allison buildings, as well as landscape features, including a garden in an unidentified location and a path through the woods. More than 60 other photographs were taken during the period. Most date from 1897 and 1898. Generally speaking, these photographs are of individual buildings on the campus, but often also capture aspects of the landscape, such as board walks and dirt roads. There are also several photographs of landscape features such as the greenhouse complex and springs. The locations of some of the photographs are not identified, and some photographs depict hospital properties other than the West Campus. The photographs make it clear, however, that an effort has been made by this time to develop attractively landscaped areas on the site for the enjoyment of patients. C2. Godding Era Landscape Chronology, 1877-1899 1878 June 30. In Godding’s first annual report, he described the treatment of the site of

the Government Hospital for the Insane: “This hospital is fortunate in the possession of upwards of four hundred aces of land; of this a considerable portion, diversified with picturesque ravines and wooded slopes, is unsuited for cultivation, and will always remain a ramble and pleasure-ground for the recreation of the inmates. The grounds immediately surrounding the hospital


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buildings are laid out with walks and drives through lawns which have been planted with trees, with here and there groups of shrubs and flowers. The quiet beauty of these surroundings, heightened as it is by the glimpses of the river, with vistas of the city and Capitol beyond, make it one of the charming spots for which the vicinity of Washington is famous, and one well named by the first settlers in its secluded loveliness, ‘Saint Elizabeth.’”122

At this time, water for the use of the hospital was acquired both from springs on the site and from the Anacostia River. The annual report describes the water supply: “There are three springs of excellent water on the hospital grounds, from which (by the somewhat primitive method of a procession of inmates with buckets) the water for table is now obtained; the water used in the hospital for all other purposes is pumped from the Anacostia River. … By sinking a well near the river bank some of the most palpable impurities have been eliminated.”123 (The location of the springs is uncertain. The location of the well is likely a, e, or i.)

Two new buildings and an addition were constructed in calendar year 1878. The two new buildings were a bakery (Building no. 46) and a boiler house (no longer extant). An 1883 plan of the hospital buildings locates both these buildings directly behind the West Wing (Building no. 3) near the Dawes extension (no longer extant; location: 1o) In addition, a second story was added to the laundry. A reservoir was associated with the boiler house. It was connected to a pump at the riverside wall by a six-inch pipe. An unknown number of hydrants were placed around the hospital buildings and connected to the reservoir in case of fire.124 Construction of the bakery and the boiler house removed these service functions from the main hospital building and expanded the service area south of the Center Building. Until this time, the service section of the hospital had been confined to the laundry, shops, and farm buildings at the edge of the ravine. In addition, removing the boilers from the Center Building required a system of pipes to carry the steam from the boiler house to the patient-care facilities. This pipe system eventually manifested itself in tunnels connecting the boilers and the patient buildings. While it is not clear when the first tunnels were built for St. Elizabeths, tunnels are depicted in the “Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home tract” that accompanies the 1898 annual report.125

1879 January 1. Atkins Hall was occupied by 50 patients. Located immediately south

of the East Lodge (Building no. 30), Atkins Hall was the first “cottage” constructed at St. Elizabeths and represented a movement away from the congregate care philosophy of the Center Building. (Location: 1k) These segregate care facilities were designed on a residential scale for quiet, chronically ill patients that needed less supervision than more acute cases. In addition to providing home-like atmosphere for its patients, the cottages, because they were less expensive than adding wings to the main hospital building, could be more easily funded.126


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1880 June 30. In his annual report, Godding explained the value of St. Elizabeths’

location: “The site of the hospital was admirably chosen. Standing upon a broad plateau on a commanding height some two miles due south of the capital [sic], it overlooks both the city of Washington and the Potomac River. While a hospital for the insane should be built apart from the town, that ought not to be hidden from view; there is less of the feeling of isolation when one looks upon the moving panorama of boats upon the river, and there is society in the evening lights of the city beyond; it is the calm presence of the world outside without its distracting roar. The two hundred acres within the inclosing wall, which is their home, will in time become one of the most beautiful spots in the neighborhood of Washington. Nature has bountifully endowed it with variety of scenery in grove and ravine, hill-slope and river-side, while careful cultivation is every year adding something to its charms. No insane person is injured by natural beauty; greensward irritates no nerves however sensitive; those who pass by the flowers to-day may turn to them with delight to-morrow; so, it is well to widen our green lawns and brighten the walks with roses.”127

The second segregate care facility – called “Relief” (Building no. 32) due to its purpose of relieving overcrowded conditions – was completed southeast of, and at a ninety-degree angle to, Atkins Hall. (Location: 1p) By this date, Godding had begun to develop a new pattern of spatial organization with the cottages, as indicated by the annual report: “Not to go further into detail from what has been merely outlined, it will be seen how easy it is to extend this plan of detached buildings to the decided advantage of certain classes of the insane.”128

The hospital orchard was expanded during the year, and the vineyard had become productive: “Our vineyard, with an annual yield of about eight tons of very excellent grapes, is a matter of pride and a pleasant feature of our farm. We hope to make our fruit orchard an equal success. The peach trees that were set three years ago are now coming into bearing, and another peach orchard of about three hundred trees has been planted this year; also between three and four hundred standard pear and apple trees have been added to the old orchard, fruit being a dessert of which our people do not easily tire.”129 (Location: 3f) The annual report noted that “(t)he new piggery on the out-farm will enable us to transfer our extensive herd of swine to more commodious quarters, and at the same time rid the hospital grounds of inclosures that, from the proximity of the new buildings, have become unsightly.”130 Although the herd was moved the enclosures were not removed until 1898.

1881 June 30. As had been his custom since becoming superintendent, Godding started

this year’s annual report with a statement on the value of St. Elizabeths’ varied grounds, this time focusing on the farm: “What we consider the advantages of the farm, in addition to its products, are, that it offers varied occupation not otherwise


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so satisfactorily afforded, gives space for walks and recreation to a large proportion of the inmates, and is the most salubrious of all possible surroundings for so extensive a pile of buildings. In the torrid heat of the summers of this latitude it is restful and invigorating to come from the stifling pavements of the city upon our green lawns and feel the wind blowing from the river. The pleasing variety of country fields and woods is a relief to the necessarily monotonous life of the insane.”131

In what was to become a regular feature during his tenure as director of the United States Marine Corps Band, John Philip Sousa brought the band to St. Elizabeths for an outdoor concert: “Our acknowledgments are due to Washington amateurs for a number of dramatic and musical entertainments during the past winter, which were much enjoyed by our household, also to the Marine Band, under Professor Sousa, for an outdoor concert during the summer, which was quite an unusual treat.”132 (Location: unknown) The 1883 “Government Hospital for the Insane Ground Plan” dates a “Gas House” to 1881. It is located south of the stables. (Location: 1o) Since the 1873 “Topographical Map” of the hospital placed the gas house in the laundry and shop complex west of the stables, the 1881 gas house appears to be a new building and represents the continued expansion of St. Elizabeths’ service landscape.

1882 June 30. Godding by this time had embraced the cottage plan as an appropriate

means of expanding hospital facilities as the need arose: “In providing the additional accommodations thereby rendered necessary [to house increasing numbers of patients] it will be possible and desirable to carry out the plan already commenced in the recent additions to the hospital, of providing detached buildings, or at least distinct wards for certain classes of the insane.” 133

Godding made the first request for funding greenhouse facilities for the hospital in his 1881-82 annual report: “The sum of $3,000 for cold grapery, forcing and green house, is an expenditure that will add more to the beauty of the grounds and the pleasure of the inmates than the same amount would yield in almost any other way. It is not alone an aesthetic, but an economic provision to preserve and bring forward the budding plants that brighten the gardens and lawns.”134 As the superintendent continued the request in subsequent reports, it is clear that he did not receive the funding he requested at this time.

St. Elizabeths regularly received charitable donations of many kinds, including musical instruments and sheet music, books, magazines, and other reading material. The superintendent often thanked the donors in his annual report. In the fiscal year 1882 report, he thanked “Miss Marsh for a fine bear cub, as the nucleus of a zoological garden.” No other reference to the “zoological garden” has been discovered in research for this study. It is not known whether the bear cub was housed at the hospital and if so, where.135


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1883 June 30. By this date, construction of the Home building (Building no. 36),

another cottage-plan patient residence, had begun under the supervision of Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark. (Location: 1p) The annual report describes Home as “part of the system of detached buildings for the insane.”136 The location of the building directly south of Atkins Hall and at a 90-degree angle to Relief created a three-sided courtyard. While these buildings bore an axial relationship to the Center Building, the orientation of their doors and primary elevations was distinct from the original hospital buildings, helping to establish a sense of separate accommodations for the patients housed there.

Also completed during the year was the Rest (Building no. 40), the hospital’s

mortuary and pathological laboratory, which was located near the stables south of the Center Building.137 (Location: 1o, slightly east of its current location)

Work on the grounds included “the planting of shade trees, the erection of summerhouses, and the placing of settees about the grounds. To provide suitable walks for the female patients at those seasons when our stiff clay soil is converted into mud, paths of asphalt have been laid through pleasant places.” 138 The shade trees were probably those donated by the “Parking Commission of the District of Columbia,” which the annual report thanks “for a very liberal donation of five hundred shade-trees for the beautifying of our grounds.” The report states that the trees “have been planted beside the recently made walks and roads, or grouped about the new buildings, where there is still room for more.”139 The Parking Commission was an informal body of three individuals appointed by what was then Washington’s territorial government to recommend the kinds of trees to be planted in the city’s public grounds. The body also sought out suppliers for these needs.140 The location of the summerhouses is not depicted in the 1883 Ground Plan of St. Elizabeths. However, a plat that accompanied the 1895 Annual Report for the hospital locates a summerhouse slightly southeast of Relief.141 (Location: 1p) This is the approximate location of one of the current summerhouses, Building no. 206.

During fiscal year 1883, the superintendent secured better water for the hospital “by sinking a series of artesian or tubular wells near the pumping station at the river within the hospital grounds.” Eighteen two-inch wells were dug 325-350 feet deep. Underground pipes carried the water “through a patent sand-chamber into the common reservoir. This is a cylinder of boiler-iron, which occupies the center of the old well in the pump-house from which the river water was formerly pumped.”142 (Location: a or e) Godding reiterated his request for an appropriation for a greenhouse and cold grapery, but the hospital had some kind of greenhouse structure by this date because he thanked “the florists who gave us cuttings and bedding plants when


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our little glass house (which was our all in this direction) was burnt out.”143 (Location: unknown)

1884 June 30. Three buildings were completed during the year: Home (Building no.

36), Retreat (Building no. 6, also called Pine), and a new kitchen (Building no. 45). With the completion of Retreat, an extension of the East Wing of the main hospital complex, and the detached building Home, Godding can be seen to pursue both congregate and segregate care simultaneously. The siting of the kitchen next to the bakery expanded the service landscape in the immediate vicinity of the Center Building. The kitchen was connected to the Center Building with a covered passage through which the food car was pushed to the hospital. A subterranean brick-arched passage was built to connect the kitchen to a planned dining hall for the “detached” buildings – that is, the cottages.144

The annual report requested $6,000 from Congress to purchase additional farmland due to the increased number of hospital buildings constructed: “That portion of the hospital plateau which is best suited for farm products has been seriously encroached upon by the ground having been taken up to a considerable extent for the sites of detached buildings and by the widening of lawns and pleasure grounds about them.”145 Dr. I. W. Blackburn was appointed the hospital’s pathologist, helping to initiate a change in approach to patient treatment from moral philosophy to a scientific approach. Blackburn, the first full-time pathologist at an American mental hospital, became a pioneer in the field, and a report of his findings became an important and sought-after feature of the hospital’s annual report.146

1885 By June 30, the detached dining hall (Building no. 33; location: 1o, p) and a shop

for cabinet work by patients (no longer extant; location: uncertain, but likely 1o) were under construction. This year’s annual report states that the buildings “are likely to be completed before the close of the present fiscal year.”147 The dining hall became the fourth side of the courtyard established by the construction of the Atkins, Relief, and Home buildings.

The hospital once again received shade trees (the number unspecified) from the

District’s Parking Commission.148 1886 June 30. The labor force maintaining St. Elizabeths’ grounds consisted of “three

male attendants [who] have been employed exclusively in taking out patients of different classes and working with them on the grounds.” Work accomplished included “mending roads, excavating for building, raking the lawns, and digging in the vineyard.”149

The Parking Commission of the District provided trees for planting at St. Elizabeths for the third time. The hospital also received “cuttings [that] have


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helped to beautify our grounds” from Col. John M. Wilson, the Officer in Charge of Public Buildings and Grounds. 150 After the Civil War, responsibility for the care and maintenance of federal buildings and grounds in Washington was lodged with the Chief Engineer of the Army, who delegated that responsibility to a member of his office.151

1887 Appropriations were received for enlargement of both the East Lodge (Building

no. 30) and the West Lodge (no longer extant), and the additions were completed during the year. (Location: 1o, p) Also under construction and expected to be completed “before the next fiscal year” was Howard Hall for the criminally insane. 152 (Location: 1n; no longer extant)

1888 June 30. In requesting $15,000 “for general repairs and improvements, including

the care of the grounds,” the annual report describes St. Elizabeths’ grounds “as among the most beautiful in the vicinity of Washington.” Helping to beautify the grounds has been a “little wooden frame, never worthy of the name of greenhouse, but which, with a few cold frames, has for years furnished us all the bedding plants that have made our lawns beautiful.” The annual report requested funding for its replacement due to deterioration.153 Two years later, however, it was still in use. The annual report for 1890, calling it a “propagating house,” reported that it had “for many years afforded us the early tomato and egg plants [sic], with hundreds of bedders for our lawns.”154 (Location: unknown)

By this date, “swine and neat cattle” had been removed “from the old stables, near the hospital, to their new quarters on the out-farm.” The annual report requested funding to outfit the stables for the hospital’s horses, mules, farm wagons, carriages, and agricultural implements.155

1889 June 30. By this date, the L-shaped first section of Howard Hall (Location: 1n,

no longer extant) was completed. Superintendent Godding planned “to ask appropriations to add a building corresponding very nearly to the present one, which will give to the completed Howard Hall the form of a hollow square, inclosing a perfectly secure ground where the inmates can be at will in the open air and sunshine. Here they can grow plants, keep their pet birds and animals and make it their home.”156

1890 June 30. The Toner Building (Location: 2s, no longer extant), an infirmary or

“hospital pavilion” south of the service buildings, was opened. The Toner Building represented the first patient-care building facility constructed on this former farmland.157 As with other buildings constructed during this period, efforts were made in the design and landscaping of the building to give patients the opportunity to experience fresh air and sunshine: “The Toner Building [is] … sufficiently removed from other departments of the institution to insure quiet and the absence of all unpleasant suggestions from the wards of the active and violent insane. There are broad piazzas for the inmates, with windows to the floor


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opening on them. Then there are wide lawns, with great oaks and spreading beeches, where the convalescents may lie at ease in their shadow or sit and smoke and take in the healing that is in the air and sunshine. A pleasant walk through the fields, or through a well-lighted subterranean passage in inclement weather, connects this with the asylum world where it lies apart.”158 (16)

Also constructed was an engine house and tower (or firehouse; Building no. 41). The annual report describes the engine house as “central in position [and] visible from almost every portion of the hospital buildings 159 (Location: 1o, slightly east of its current location)

1891 June 30. The second half of Howard Hall was under construction by this date.

(Location: 1n) When completed, the facility would have “an outdoor court of more than a fourth of an acre, inclosed [sic] within the building’s walls, with its green turf and its sunshine, where trees are already casting their shadow and where the inmates may walk at will and be secure.”160

J.M. Toner, president of the hospital’s board of visitors, gave St. Elizabeths a sundial to be placed on the grounds of the building bearing his name. (Location: 2s) A larger gift was funding for Burrows Cottage (Building no. 18), which was donated by Mrs. C.Z. Burrows, the mother of a private patient at the hospital. (Location: 3l) St. Elizabeths, like other public hospitals placed restrictions on admission of private patients; by donating money for the cottage, Mrs. Burrows ensured that her daughter would always have a place to be cared for.161 Burrows Cottage is the only patient building ever constructed north of the Center Building.

During the year, St. Elizabeths purchased more than 400 acres of farmland approximately five miles south of the hospital at the mouth of Oxon Creek.162 The farm would come to be known as Godding Croft. During the calendar year, the federal government began filling the tidal flats along the Anacostia River: “mud bars were thrown up, to cut off the swash channel on the river front adjoining the hospital grounds.”163 (Location: a, e, i) The work had unexpected consequences for St. Elizabeths. At low tides, “broad surfaces of mud, with acres of decomposing vegetable matter,” were exposed, resulting “in an unusual number of malarial cases among our inmates and employés [sic].”164

1892 June 30. The circulation pattern and associated grounds underwent changes to

accommodate the placement of new buildings: “The grading of grounds with the opening of new roads and avenues within the inclosure, while by no means complete, shows commendable progress.”165 While the changes the annual report describes are not specified, the most likely major change occurring at this time is the establishment of a road linking Toner to the older part of the hospital. On the 1895 “Plat showing number and location of buildings” a roadway extends south from the service area and loops back toward the north in front of Toner.


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During the year, a stone boiler house (Building no. 52; location: 4o) was

constructed in the ravine south of the laundry and machine shop. The boiler house provided steam for heat and cooking in the hospital buildings.166

1893 June 30. Completed during the year were two pavilions for female epileptic

patients immediately north of the East Lodge, called Dix nos. 1 and 2 (now Holly and Linden, Buildings nos. 29 and 28; location: 1p).167 Construction of these two buildings necessitated a major change in the road from the hospital’s northern gate to the area south of the Center Building. An earlier road, shown on both the 1860 “Topographical Plan of the Grounds” and on the 1873 “Topographical Map of the Site and Lands,” reached the area behind the Center Building by a path north of the East Lodge. In both these illustrations, the road is lined on each side with trees. As a result of the construction of the Dix Buildings, the road is diverted further south, generally as it is today. Subsequent depictions of the grounds, such as those accompanying the 1895 annual report, show the new course of the road south of the East Lodge. The allée of oak trees in the location of the original road remained standing.

The grounds south of the Center Building received further changes during the year, including the construction of a reservoir: “Two large reservoirs have been built as an added protection against fire, one near the stock barns on Sheppard farm [east campus], the other a basin which has replaced the duck pond directly in the rear of the main building, contiguous to the steamer house and convenient for use on most of the detached buildings. It is a circular brick basin, 90 feet in diameter, with a capacity of 200,000 gallons of water.”168 (Location: 1o) The location of the “duck pond” can be seen on the 1873 “Topographical Map” of St. Elizabeths. The 1895 annual report, in addition to the “Plat” that showed building locations for the entire hospital included a plat focused on the “Home Tract” that illustrates the basin. It also shows a star-shaped pattern of walks within the loop of roadway that includes the reservoir that are absent from the 1873 “Topographical Map.”169

St. Elizabeths abandoned one of its buildings during the fiscal year, but the structure remained standing: “The cabinet and machine shop, after more than thirty-five years of almost daily use, has, owing to the settlement of its foundations, become unsafe for machinery, and has necessarily been abandoned as a workshop.”170 (the former mechanics shop, no longer extant; location: 1o) In the previous year’s annual report, Godding reported that a reason for the settling was that the building was constructed “in part over filled ground.”171

A store was opened on the hospital grounds during the year, according to a 1927 Congressional report: “In about 1893 a small building was erected by the hospital and a patient named Cutter permitted to run a store therein. Cutter failed, the store was closed for a while, and then, upon request of many patients, the store


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was reopened, this time conducted by an employe and an exemploye.”172 (Location: unknown)

1894 June 30. To justify his request for $16,000 for repairs and improvements,

Godding notes that the sum is needed to maintain the buildings and to “develop the grounds which are year by year growing more beautiful, and are recognized as among the most attractive of the Government reservations within the District limits.”173

A one-story brick building with a slate roof was constructed in 1894 as the

pumping station. It was located near the Anacostia River.174 (Location: a, e)

1895 June 30. For administrative and therapeutic purposes, patient buildings on what is now the West Campus were divided by this date into five groups, each of which housed related classifications of patients. In a few instances, the groups of buildings and their grounds were differentiated or separated from the others. The “female department,” for instance, included the East Wing of the main hospital building (Building no. 3), the East Lodge (Building no. 30), Burrows Cottage (Building no. 18), and the Dix buildings (Building nos. 29, 28, and 8, respectively). (Location 1k, l, p, 3l) The annual report for 1895 states that “This group has its own distinct grounds.”175 It is not clear how the female department’s grounds were made distinct from those of the other groups, but it may have been through the use of the single-rail fences that appear in photographs of the period. Howard Hall (no longer extant) comprised its own patient group and was “provided with grounds lying outside the building,” although again the manner of the separation is not specified. (Location: 1n) The “eastern group,” which included Atkins, Relief, Home, and the Detached Dining Hall (Building nos. 31, 32, 36, and 33, respectively), also had its own “distinct grounds, comprising about 8 acres, that are lightly inclosed to afford greater freedom to its occupants. The grounds have been tastefully laid out with graveled walks, planted with trees and flowering shrubs, and made attractive with convenient seats and shaded summer houses.”176 (Location: 1o, p) J.C. Simpson, the head of the detached buildings group, later said that he was responsible for the landscape treatment, describing this area as “a little park that I made myself.”177 The “southern group” consisted of Toner and three buildings under construction (Oaks 1 and 2, and the group’s kitchen; no longer extant). (Location: 2s) Physically separated from the rest of the hospital buildings by a ravine, the group also received landscaping attention: “All about the Toner Building outdoors is made inviting to the eye with its flowers and lawns and restful shadows.” 178

1897 June 30. During the fiscal year, changes were made to the topography of the

hospital, and a new source of water was found: “The whole Hospital plateau is underlaid, at a depth of about 40 feet, with a vein of gravel and silver sand, which has always fed several springs of varying flow along the edge of the ravines. The largest of these, known as ‘Maple Spring,’ being in a ravine that it became


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necessary to fill, was found to be affected by the filling and consequently abandoned. … In the search for further supply a spot in a grove on the western slope of the hill, always springy and unaffected by dry weather, was carefully explored, and found to yield an abundance of water at a lower level. With considerable labor and expense this diffused spring has been gathered in basins and with pipes brought to a central reservoir, and in the driest time of last autumn was found to have a daily flow of about 5,000 gallons of spring water of delightful coolness and purity. Every possible source of defilement has been guarded against, the whole carefully walled in and closed up, and now from this central reservoir is obtained all the water for tea and coffee and drinking purposes of the entire household.”179 (Location: 4n, r?)

The annual report thanks “Miss Tuckerman,” for her “generous gift of flower seeds and bulbs.” Since the report states that, with this gift, “the female patients might be tempted to outdoor work,” it is possible that the superintendent planned for the seeds and bulbs to be used in the “female department” located in the East Wing of the main hospital building, the Dix Buildings, and Burrows Cottage.180 (Location: 1k, l, p, 3l)

1898 June 30. Construction on four cottage-type pavilions organized around a small

courtyard had progressed by this date: “The Allison buildings [Building nos. 23-26; location: 1p] for infirm soldiers and sailors from the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers are practically completed, and will be fully occupied before the report is issued. This is a group of four buildings of the pavilion type, connected with the Relief and Home buildings, affording an indoor and outdoor provision for the sick and feeble ones (who by their advancing age are every year becoming more helpless) that is more liberal and inviting than anything that has hitherto been developed at St. Elizabeth. There is ample indoor space for 100 bedridden and feeble men, while the piazza space is actually greater than that within doors. The floors of the latter are of the same level as the dormitory floors, and the doorways wide enough to admit of the beds and couches on casters being trundled into the open air.”181 Simpson later stated that the Allison buildings were constructed within the detached buildings enclosure.182 Photographs included in the annual report show fences surrounding the buildings and trees already in the yard. Construction of the Allison buildings on the eastern grounds of St. Elizabeths reinforced the segregate care associated with this portion of the site.

Also completed during the year was an enlargement of the Rest (Building no. 40).”183 In requesting funding for this “extension of the laboratory” in the 1895 annual report, Godding noted that “the importance of the pathological work that year by year has been quietly carried on at this hospital has come to be recognized by the leading pathologists and scientific alienists throughout the United States.”184


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By this date, magnolia trees have been well enough established at St. Elizabeths for the annual report to boast that “the nation’s Capitol has no ivy-mantled towers and no southern magnolias than can compare with” those of the hospital.185

The “old pens and outhouses” that were part of the piggery near the stables were removed during the year to make room for a new laundry building.186 (Location: 1o) As a result of “the constant enlargement of the hospital accommodations” Godding requested $2,500 “to extend the brick pavements about them.” He called the work “essential to the proper policing and general tidy appearance of the whole.”187

1899 February 14. Godding wrote to Senator William E. Chandler regarding “a bill

recently introduced in the House of Representatives authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to purchase a tract of land adjoining the present hospital site, so as to afford a distinct provision for the insane of the Army and Navy, with grounds apart from the United States convict and District indigenous insane.” Godding conveyed to Chandler his approval of the site. He called the tract “a beautiful spot, elevated, commanding views of the city and river, and is in every way suitable for extensive buildings and ornamental grounds.” 188 Senate report no. 1694, dated February 20, 1899, identifies the property as Wilson Park, a tract of 69.39 acres of land that “adjoins the present grounds of the United States Hospital for the Insane.” It is likely the land southwest of the current West Campus, now the Congress Heights neighborhood, that Superintendent Alonzo Richardson sought to acquire in subsequent years. The bill, authorizing the purchase of Wilson Park for $245,000, was reported by the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds on February 20, but was not passed.189 .

May 6. Godding died. Dr. A.H. Witmer assumed the role of acting superintendent.190

June 30. During the year construction began on the enlargement of the West Lodge.191 In his 1898 annual report, Godding had requested funding to add “broad piazzas” to Atkins Hall. The piazzas were added, as was a third floor, in 1899.192 An addition to the laundry and machine shop (Building no. 49; location: 1o) was also completed.193


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D. RICHARDSON AND WHITE ERA LANDSCAPE CHRONOLOGY, 1899-1937

D1. Sources For the Richardson and White Era Landscape Chronology By the beginning of the twentieth century, advances in treatment and research emerged as a “scientific” approach to mental illness, as differentiated from the “humanitarian” approach of the nineteenth century. Millikan (148-171) and Devrouax & Purnell (2:12-13, 24-30) draw from primary and secondary sources to outline the development of this new approach and its relevance at St. Elizabeths. Two superintendents, Alonzo Richardson and William Alanson White guided St. Elizabeths during this period, each understanding the need for change at St. Elizabeths to meet then current modes of treatment for the mentally ill. Richardson began the drive to expand the hospital and secured funding for 15 new buildings, all of which were under construction by the time of his death in 1903. White outlined what he considered a new approach in “The New Government Hospital for the Insane” in American Journal of Insanity 66:4, April 1910. The new buildings transformed former farmland south of the Center Building and expanded treatment facilities to the east side of Nichols Avenue for the first time. The construction of a new administration building in this new grouping removed those functions from the Center Building for the first time. The buildings themselves remained small, compared to the Center Building. Each was designed to accommodate a specific class of patients. The spatial organization of the expansion, designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge of Boston, was much more formal than the Godding-era cottages. The general landscape treatment of turf and trees followed that of other areas on the plateau. Annual reports again provide a concise summary of the physical growth of the hospital during this period and the changes required in the landscape to accommodate the new buildings, including new circulation patterns, new utilities, and demolitions. The introduction of automobiles during the period resulted in alterations of materials, scale, and patterns of circulation. During the early years of the period, the annual reports focus on the expansion and its accommodation. Less is said about ornamental plantings or changes to the older portion of the hospital grounds, with the exception of demolition of old buildings and the reuse of these sites. Three site plans from the period help track these changes: 1901 Sunderland Brothers, “Plot of the Property of the Government Hospital for the

Insane,” Olmsted Archives, job 2825, no. 14, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts

1904 James Berral, “Government Hospital for the Insane,” 1904, Annual Report, 1903-

04, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904 1908 Sunderland Brothers, “Plot of the Property of the Government Hospital for the

Insane,” December 28, 1908, Annual Report, 1907-08, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908


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Additional resources related to what is often called the Richardson expansion include records from the Olmsted Archives at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. These records include a suggested layout of buildings (mainly on land adjacent to St. Elizabeths), the descripitive notes taken by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., during his visit, his report to Richardson, and photographs. The 1904 annual report also includes three photographs of the new buildings shortly after their completion. Changes to St. Elizabeths took place throughout the period – including, for instance, alterations in the alignment of the railroad spur added early in the period and demolition of buildings – but the next site plan discovered during research for the project dates from 1938. The testimony of the annual reports on the growth of the hospital is supplemented by several sources. Congressional investigations of the hospital took place in 1906 and 1926, and the hearings and reports of the investigating committees provide some descriptions of the hospital at the time. Particularly interesting in the earlier investigation are descriptions of an enclosed area surrounding the detached buildings southeast of the Center Building, comprising more than seven acres. More than 100 photographs from the period are available (including five aerial photos); 90 percent of these date from prior to 1920. Finally, archival data from several years in the decade of the 1920s includes contributions to the superintendent’s annual reports from heads of hospital units, including Construction and Lawns and Grounds. The latter unit was headed for several years by Alvah Godding, son of Superintendent William Godding. The Lawns and Grounds Department was responsible for the landscape around the patient buildings, but also managed the greenhouses, orchard, vineyard, and gardens on the West Campus. While the reports are often unspecific in the location of the work covered, they do present an idea of the breadth of landscape work accomplished by Godding and his staff – including the number and types of ornamental plants distributed around the grounds and the production of the vineyard, orchard, and gardens. Also included are transcripts (in two parts) of a botanical tour of the grounds given by Godding in 1928. D2. Richardson and White Era Landscape Chronology, 1899-1937

1899 October 17. Dr. Alonzo B. Richardson began tenure as superintendent.194 1900 It was at about this date that Alvah Godding, son of the late superintendent

William Godding and often credited with introducing a wide variety of trees and plants into the St. Elizabeths landscape, began working at the hospital. His position at this time is unknown.195 In the 1920s, Godding headed St. Elizabeths’ Lawns and Grounds unit. (See 1921 entry.)

October 2. By this date “a complete sewer system from all parts of the hospital to the river” was completed. Richardson described the principal sewer into which the building lines drained: “The main line is 24 inches in diameter and is constructed of vitrified glazed tile pipe encased in a continuous covering of concrete from 6 to 4 inches in thickness. The line discharges through the wall into the river at a point never exposed at low tide. This has obviated the


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unpleasant features of the old line due to its discharge into low and marshy ground along the line of the river and much of the time exposed.”196

The location of the south entrance was changed during the year. According to the annual report, “A new entrance to the grounds was made from Nichols avenue at a point opposite the Toner Building, and the old rear gate has been removed and the opening walled up. The new entrance is much more in keeping with the requirements of the institution and more conveniently situated. With the plans now preparing for the extension of the hospital, it appears probably that this will become the main entrance to the grounds and the central point of the entire building site.”197 The 1899 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home Tract” illustrates a third entrance opposite the Toner Building.198 A photograph of this area, taken by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., during his December 26 visit to St. Elizabeths, shows an entrance lane bordered by masonry walls extending from the stone perimeter wall. At the end of the lane, six masonry piers mark the entrance itself. A small frame building stands just beyond the piers and probably acted as a gatehouse.199 While this entrance seems to have been used for several years, the entrance lane, piers, and gatehouse probably were removed when construction began on the lettered buildings in 1902.

During the year Congress approved an expansion of St. Elizabeths to accommodate an additional 1,000 patients and 200 employees. The hospital’s Board of Visitors sought plans for the expansion from six architectural firms and received submissions from five firms by September 1. Finding none of the submitted plans satisfactory, the board approached two additional firms. The Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge was ultimately selected. The program presented to the firms participating in the competition envisioned constructing the new buildings on land already owned by the hospital, meaning that some construction would take place on farmland east of Nichols Avenue, but the Board of Visitors still advocated the purchase of additional land for construction.200 In the annual report, Superintendent Richardson complained to Congress about the “Anacostia flats” bordering the hospital: “This board would also most urgently request that the attention of Congress be called to the deplorable condition of the Anacostia flats from the junction of that stream with the Potomac River to the railroad bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Bordering the hospital grounds on the west, they are a constant menace to the health of the institution, and a fertile soil for the development of the specific germs of malaria. These flats are perhaps a half mile in width, the water covering them is very shallow, leaving them almost exposed at low tide, and during the summer season they become covered with a rank growth of weeds and water moss, which decays as autumn comes on.” Richardson asked Congress to deepen and widen the channel of the


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Anacostia River and fill the flats, as had been done for the Potomac River. Such an effort would remove a health threat and provide more land for the hospital.201

In September, heavy rains caused the tunnel from the boiler house (Building no. 52) to collapse beneath the laundry (Building no. 49): “Within the past two weeks an unusually hard rain overflowed the rear court of the hospital and the water ran into an opening made into the tunnel leading to the boiler house at a point where it had been opened in the process of construction of the store building. This tunnel passed under the new laundry building at a depth of from 25 to 30 feet from the surface, and for want of funds had not been paved, although built on a stratum of sand. The flow of water into it caused it to cave in for a distance of 50 or 60 feet immediately under the laundry building and necessitated an extensive repair and considerable expense to protect the building.”202

December 18. At the suggestion of architect Henry Richardson Shepley, Superintendent Richardson wrote to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to say that “we will be glad to have you make a visit to this Hospital for the purpose of looking over the site of the proposed extension to this institution, and to make such suggestions to the architects with regard to the arrangement of the buildings and the general landscaping as may be deemed advisable.”203

December 26. Olmsted visited St. Elizabeths. His notes from the trip described his impressions: “Present grounds are much cluttered and confused in arrangement not only of buildings but of trees, shrubs, roads, paths, etc. Buildings are too closely arranged for proper separation of different classes of patients, better provision for independent exercise and recreation grounds for different classes separate from each other and from visitors, etc., very desirable. Dr. Richardson wants to clear out some of the clutter of stuff from the inner (and now rear) court of the main group. As to uses of various buildings see notes on topo. Land across road (car tracks) is bare farm land. The farm is desirable for use of patients and should be kept free of buildings on that account as well as because buildings ought not to be separated by highway.”204

1901 January 15. Olmsted made his report to Richardson, first discussing the campus

as it existed at the time: “The various minor buildings forming the principal group seem to have been huddled about in the vicinity of the great main building with no regard for agreeable or even orderly appearance and, what is far more important, without proper regard for the various uses to which the buildings are put and the interference of these uses with each other. The appearance is one of confusion, while the rather bald and uncompromising design of most of the buildings prevents the effect of picturesqueness that will cover so many faults. Practically the arrangement seems unfortunate not only because of the close juxtaposition of buildings containing different classes of patients who ought not to be subject to each others’ influence, as the noisy near the irritable, the men near the women, the colored near the white, and the like, but also because the lines of


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passage to and from the various buildings for the different classes of patients, for matters of service and administration, and for visitors to the institution, are so involved with one another as to cause serious confusion, and in some cases actually to prevent the patients’ obtaining the amount of outdoor exercise considered essential to their physical health and mental improvement. Many of the difficulties thus arisen may be insuperable, but the appearance can be greatly improved by the elimination of some of the minor structures of various sorts as their usefulness is outgrown, and by the simplification of the path and road system and the tree and shrub plantations, which add not a little, in some parts, to the effect of confusion.”

Secondly, Olmsted discussed possible sites for new construction: “North and northwest of the main building are two nearly level spurs making out toward the Potomac and commanding noble prospects. (Location: 1g, j, k?) Considered independently, no objection could possibly be raised to these spurs as building sites; but they form, with the space about the carriage turn, the only available exercising ground adjacent to the two great wings of the main building, a purpose which they seem to serve admirably although they are none to large. To occupy them for other purposes would be a step in the wrong direction, and ought not to be seriously considered.

“Northeast of the main building is another piece of level ground now used as a

garden, but its proximity to the highway would interfere with its use for a building containing patients. (Location: 3h, l) Not only would the sight of patients at the windows, their sometimes unseemly conduct, and the noises which they often make be a serious annoyance to the public passing on the street, but the movement and activity of the street business would be likely to distract and excite the patients. The same objection applies to the whole frontage of land upon the highway for a depth of about one hundred yards. Within this distance of the street there might be erected some of the dwellings for nurses and for other employees, and possibly the assembly and other buildings used by patients only temporarily and when under perfect control, but these will form but a small proportion of the new buildings.

“There remain on the west side of the street only two other possible sites of

importance. One is the outer end of the ridge occupied by the hospital group and the other is the spur just to the south of it. The former could support one considerable building, and the latter a second, or perhaps two of smaller size. It appears then that there are on the land west of the street at most three good sites that can be occupied by buildings for patients.”205 A site plan showing potential locations of new buildings submitted with the report by Olmsted Brothers places two buildings along Nichols Avenue (location: 2t, x), a third on the spur at the southernmost edge of hospital property (location of current Building no. 68; location: 2x), and a fourth west of that site, in the ravine (location: 2w).206


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The Olmsted report discussed the farmland east of Nichols Avenue as a potential building site, but rejected the possibility based on the busy roadway separating the two parts of the campus, the bareness of the landscape, and the need for farmland. Instead, the report advocated acquiring the property south of the hospital, which Godding had sought to acquire in 1899.207 The report also addressed plans by the city of Washington to extend the street grid to the area around St. Elizabeths: “Either the buildings should bear a formal relation to the future streets or the plat of future streets should be changed to relate properly to the best orientation of the proposed hospital buildings.”208

October 1. A central storehouse and cold-storage plant (Building no. 44; location: 1o) was completed during the year.209 Construction of the storehouse resulted in the demolition of the old boiler house.

Also completed and placed in operation during the year was the “new waterworks.” Six wells were drilled near the Anacostia River, and the wells were connected to “a reservoir adjoining the pump room, holding about 120,000 gallons.” The new pumps were located in a 43 by 25 foot addition to the pumping station.210 (Location: a, e; no longer extant) Water from the wells was pumped to a new water tower on the plateau: “The tank has a capacity of about 60,000 gallons and stands on a steel trestle 80 feet from the ground.”211 According to a 1904 plan of the hospital the water tower stood between the laundry and the Toner Building.212 (Location: 2s; no longer extant) A new pipe to draw water from the Anacostia River was also installed to provide for fire fighting. Thirty-five hydrants were installed around the hospital buildings and “[h]ose carts with 150 to 200 feet of hose on each will be located at convenient points about the building and grounds.”213

To facilitate the delivery of coal to the hospital, St. Elizabeths was connected to the railroad during the year: “A railroad switch about 4,400 feet long, extending from the Alexandria branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the boiler house of the hospital, with two sidings, each about 500 feet in length, has been completed after considerable difficulty experienced by the contractor, Mr. John Jacoby, of this city, from slides at three or four points. These were due to the very heavy rains of the past spring and summer and the treacherous character of the material of which some of the fills were made. … A trestle has also been constructed at the power house for dumping coal cars. … A set of track scales for weighing cars has been placed on the siding near the pump house and will add much to the convenience of handling coal and other supplies.”214 (Track location: 3b, e, 5i, m, 4r. Track scales location: a or e)

A new road was constructed to link the rail spur to the hospital grounds: “With the appropriation made for roadways, grading, etc., for the extension of the hospital, a roadway is being constructed from the railroad siding at the boiler house to the site of the buildings of the extension. This road passes by the store


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building and will also be used to deliver supplies to the entire hospital. It will have a grade not to exceed 5 per cent and will be macadamized over the entire length except about the store building, where asphalt block will be used. In connection with this improvement the entire side hill near the workshops has been graded and cleaned of rubbish and will be sowed in grass. The appearance of this portion of the ground is much improved by the change.”215 It is not clear whether this road ran directly from the boiler house up the ravine slope to the shop area or descended west along the ravine, made a sharp turn behind Howard Hall, and climbed this less steep hill to the service area. (Location: 4n, o) Both these paths appear to be present in the 1904 plan accompanying the hospital’s annual report. The direct route does not appear in other site plans of the hospital and does not currently exist. The existing retaining walls at the boiler house may date from this work, or from the construction of the railroad spur, since they appear on the 1904 site plan.

A kitchen for the cottage-plan buildings southeast of the Center Building was also completed. (Building no. 34; location: 1o)216

Work on the hospital grounds included “A large amount of drain tile … about the rear of the hospital for the drainage of the courts about the domestic buildings, the groups of detached buildings, and the site of the proposed extension.”217 Congress also appropriated $25,000 for a stable, construction of which had begun. “The stable has been located on the east side of Nichols Avenue, near the dairy barns, facing the avenue,” Richardson reported. “When it is in operation the old stable will be removed and its site made into a lawn, adding greatly to the attractiveness and healthfulness of the rear court about the domestic buildings of the hospital.”218

Contracts were approved and signed for the construction of 12 new buildings to expand hospital facilities. “It is proposed at present to locate, on the present building site of the hospital, near its southeast corner and near the Toner Building group, eight of these buildings,” according to the annual report, “ … and to place the remaining four buildings on the east side of Nichols avenue, directly opposite them and about 300 feet from the avenue.”219

1902 October 7. By this date, the new stable had been constructed east of Nichols

Avenue and the old stable near the laundry, standing since 1857, had been demolished. (Location: 1o) Relandscaping of the site had also begun: “The old stable building has been removed and its location will be made into a lawn, enhancing much the appearance of the park in the rear of the main building of the old group. Work has been begun on a reconstruction of the roads and walks of this portion of the grounds, and a considerable part is already completed.”220 Also planned for the area was removal of the old gas production and storage facility: “Contract has been made … for a gas machine for the laundry, and when this is installed it will permit the removal of the old gas house and gas holder which


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have become antiquated and are eyesores in the park to the rear of the hospital buildings.”221

To reduce overcrowding while construction of the new hospital buildings took place, a facility was built to house patients temporarily: “Permission was … requested and received from the Department for the construction of a frame building which will accommodate 120 patients and which will be of such character that it can be used for other purposes when the new buildings are ready. Work on this has been begun, and it is hoped to complete it within sixty or ninety days.”222 This building, called the Annex, was located immediately south of Howard Hall, according to the site plan accompanying the 1904 annual report.

1903 June 27. Superintendent Alonzo B. Richardson died suddenly.223 October 1. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Dr. William Alanson White,

then assistant superintendent at Binghamton State Hospital in New York, as superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane.224

1904 January 9. The contracts for 11 of the 15 buildings planned for the hospital

expansion were completed. All 11 of the completed buildings were patient-care facilities. The seven buildings west of Nichols Avenue were Buildings 60, 64, 66, 68, 72, 73, 75. (Location of west campus buildings: 2s, t, x)

January 30. The contract for the Toner Kitchen (no longer extant; location: 2s)

was completed. April 25. The contract for the Administration Building (Building A, Building no.

74; location 2t) was completed. July 26. The contract for the new Power, Heating, and Lighting Plant (Building

no. 56; location: 4s) was completed. A 1927 Congressional report stated that the smoke stack for this building stood 225 feet high.

Although the buildings themselves were complete, they were not occupied for lack of water and sewer connections, paint, and walkways. The hospital requested and received additional funding to complete the work, including extension of the sewer and water systems from the west side of the hospital to the new buildings on the east side.225

A “subway” beneath Nichols Avenue to connect the buildings east of the avenue to those on the west was also completed. The subway functioned as an extension of the road system developed for the new buildings: “Four thousand one hundred and sixty linear feet of macadam road, 16 feet wide and 6 inches thick, has been completed from the old road at center, passing new buildings A, B, C, M, E, R, I, N, and P, and connecting the west side of the grounds with the east side of


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Nichols avenue. Two thousand three hundred and sixty linear feet of cobble gutter has been laid. A central lawn has been plowed and topsoil spread ready for seeding. About 800 linear feet of 10-inch pipe has been laid for caring for surface drainage. A temporary wooden walk has been laid connecting buildings Q and E with the main walks.”226 (4)

The new power plant (Building no. 56) also began its operation during the year. The facility provided heat for the new buildings and electricity for the entire hospital. The boiler house (Building no. 52) continued to provide heat for the older portion of the hospital. The power plant was linked to the system of tunnels in which steam pipes and electrical conduit was located: “All of the steam pipes and electric cable from the new power house to the new buildings are run in a wooden shaft from the cut where the power house is located, extending upward to connect with the tunnels above which connect the several buildings.”227 In association with the enlarged electrical capacity, St. Elizabeths embarked on lighting its grounds for the first time: “A system of lighting the grounds by arc lights has been projected, the material bought, and its installation is in progress. Two thousand and seventy three feet of conduit have been laid, eleven poles erected, and six lights are already in operation on a temporary circuit.”228 Some of the photographs from this period illustrate the lampposts and lights. Photographic documentation indicates that at least some of the lampposts were still in use in 1957.229 The railroad tracks were also extended to the new power plant: “Four railroad tracks have been laid over the coal pockets at the new power house, the trestlework of their support being constructed by our own force.”230 The coal pockets and railroad tracks were located immediately north of the power plant, according to the site plan accompanying the 1904 annual report. A structure in which to house the hospital’s locomotive was also constructed during the year. The 1913 annual report states that a locomotive house stood near the pumping station. (Location: a, e) The track bed itself from the Baltimore & Ohio track to the power house required constant attention: “The repairs to the roadbed of the railroad have continued and cinder ballast has been put in to replace the clay. … The land slips are gradually subsiding and it is confidently expected that upon the further exclusion of the red clay the movement will cease entirely.”231 In the 1902 annual report, Richardson requested funding to move the mortuary and pathological laboratory (the Rest, Building no. 40). “The rearrangement of the buildings and of the roadways leading to the site of the new buildings makes the position of the morgue and pathological laboratory very unsuitable,” according to the report.232 Originally, the Rest stood immediately west of the detached kitchen (Building no. 34). By September 1904, the building had been moved across the road to the former stables site, although its laboratory was not yet ready for occupation.233


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At the greenhouse, the “heating apparatus” was rearranged, and a new smokestack was built.234

1905 September 15. By this date, all 15 buildings of extension had been occupied and

landscaping of the grounds had begun: “The grounds about these buildings are being rapidly graded and laid out with walks, roadways, and lawns, and many improvements to the old buildings are being pushed forward as rapidly as circumstances permit.”235

In a further reorganization of the grounds south of the Center Building, the fire

house (Building no. 41; location: 1o) was moved: “The fire engine house has been removed from its former location to a position about 200 feet southeast, on a line with the storehouse. … This building previously stood in a position exactly midway between the old hospital and the new buildings of the hospital extension. By removing it to its present position the two portions of the hospital plant were made continuous, and at the same time some of the older buildings, in connection with the laundry plant, which are somewhat unsightly, have been partially hidden from view. The engine house, together with the pathological laboratory, occupy a large plateau of ground, which is now in the process of being graded, with a view to parking, and which will ultimately form a very pleasing feature of the hospital grounds.”236 “Parking” refers to creating a park-like setting. The original location of the firehouse was immediately south of the circular reservoir of water pumped from the Anacostia for firefighting purposes. Elsewhere in the service area, two one-story wings were added to the laundry building, and its unused smokestack was taken down.237

Construction of new roads and walks in the area of the hospital’s expansion

continued on both sides of Nichols Avenue: “About 1,500 linear feet of macadam has been laid as driveways to the new buildings, also about 2,000 feet of granolithic sidewalk. This work is still going on, and it is hoped that by fall the major part of it will be completed.”238 Two public comfort stations and connecting sewer lines were also under construction at the end of the fiscal year: “Nine hundred and twenty-five feet of 8-inch sewer pipe has been laid across the detached buildings inclosure connecting with the sewer line from the new buildings to drain two new public-comfort stations and closets for greenhouse and gatehouse, located at the north entrance of the grounds. These stations have long been needed, but their installation has been rather a difficult problem, owing to the length of sewer pipe required and the low elevation of the grounds. The two stations are now under construction, and it is expected that the plumbing fixtures will be installed and ready for use shortly.”239 Site plans from 1938 and 1945 locate a 1905 comfort station next to the south wall of the north entrance. (Location: 1l) There is no comfort station at this location today. The 1938 and 1945 plans date a second comfort station (Building no. 77), located next to the south gate, to 1922. (Location: 2p) The Historic Resources Management Plan


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dates both the current comfort stations (Building nos. 77 and 201) to 1905 due to the similarities in their roofs. (Building no. 201: location: 1p) 240

The system for lighting the grounds was expanded: “Since then [the date of the

last annual report] this system has been extended and the grounds are now lighted with 22 arc lights. One or two more are needed in dark places and will probably be installed during the current year.”241 (Location: unknown)

1906 June 30. Road and walkway construction continued: “Cement walks have been

laid from the pathological laboratory to the Nurses’ Home and in front of buildings N, P, and M, in all about 3,550 linear feet; 8,250 feet of cobblestone gutter has been laid. … One thousand eight hundred linear feet of macadam road, 12 feet wide, and about 300 linear feet, 10 feet wide, has been built, passing buildings J, K, L, the Toner kitchen, and Oaks 1 and 2.”242 (Location of cement walks: 1o, 2t, x. Location of roads: 2s) In addition topsoil was spread in front of Buildings E and Q and along the edge of the ravine between Building L and the Rest, and grass seed planted.243 In addition, “Four ornamental iron flower vases have been purchased and placed on balustrade at entrance to Buildings B and C,” and the public comfort stations “at the main entrance” were completed.244

At the pumping station along the river, “a new concrete reservoir, with a capacity of 225,000 gallons has been completed with the exception of the piping.”245

Two arc lights were added to the 22 already built to light the grounds: “one in the

triangle between J and K buildings [location: 2s] and the other opposite M building [location: 2x].”246

In hearings conducted in Congress as part of an investigation of the management

of St. Elizabeths, several participants described the enclosed area around the “detached buildings” southeast of the Center Building. (Location: 1l) During the hearings, the term “bull pen” – according to oral tradition the name given the area by one of the patients – was sometimes used, although hospital officials decried that epithet.

Dr. Harry R. Hummer, senior assistant physician in charge of the detached building group: “It is a park, with an area of between seven and eight acres, I am informed. It is a pretty large park, surrounding my group of buildings, surrounded on one side by a stone hospital wall, and on the other sides – it is rather circular at this side – with a wooden paling fence. It is a very beautiful inclosure.” Hummer noted that “It is no trouble to climb the fence.” Buildings occupy approximately 1/8 of the space, according to Hummer.247

Richard P. Evans, representing the Medico-Legal Society: “[W]ith deference to the various laudatory remarks about that triangular inclosure there – which has about a 12-foot stone wall all along one site, and is nearly inclosed with brick


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buildings on the other side of an acute angle, and where there is a tall picket fence, about ten or twelve feet high, with barbed wire on its top – my impression is that if one of these physicians who think it such a beautiful and lovely place were to have to spend one, two, three, or up to eight or ten years in there, as some of these old fellows do, he would want to push out the walls a little bit and enlarge it, so that he could see some new blades of grass, and get under a larger tree.”248

Dr. J.C. Simpson, former head of detached buildings: “There was a little park

there that I made myself. I laid that out with the help of some of the patients and employees, and we graveled the walks and we planted trees and shrubs and put out plants and all that sort of thing and tried to beautify it as much as possible, but it was entirely detached from the rest of the grounds. The patients were more or less confined to those limits, because the class of patients that I had were largely old men, who would wander away. … I should say there must be 4 or 5 acres of ground, possibly. The buildings take up a good deal of the ground. We built a group of buildings – the Allison group – right in those grounds, after they had been made into a park, so that took up quite a portion of the ground; but there was a fair amount of recreation ground left.” Included in the park were summer houses.249

Some of the discrepancies in these accounts can be resolved. The total acreage, for instance, within the enclosure, was most often given as between 7 and 8 acres. The height of the fence can also be estimated, despite the differences in the observations. Evans’s description, for instance, is exaggerated. He described the stone perimeter wall of hospital as 12 feet tall, when in fact it was less than 9. A photograph by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., of the fence near the dining hall shows it to be about six feet high and composed of three rails, vertical posts, and slats.250 No photographs of the area show barbed wire atop the fence. The investigating committee concluded that the treatment of the area was not detrimental to the patients’ well-being: “As a matter of fact, the so-called ‘bull pen’ consists of an inclosure of something over 7 acres, the grounds of which are improved, having in the inclosure trees and seats under them for the use of the patients. The so-called ‘bull pen’ in fact is a small park inclosed to allow the patients confined therein to have greater liberty in outdoor exercise.”251

Hummer also noted that “the wall is down in one place in the ravine, I believe.”252 Most of the ravines on the hospital grounds were located along the southwest boundary; one was located along the northeast boundary near Burrows Cottage. (Location: 5q, r, v, w; 3h)

1907 June 30. Landscaping around the new buildings continued during the fiscal year:

“That section of the grounds in the rear of buildings A, B, C, and M has been improved by resurfacing the macadam road (about 1,866 square yards), building 600 square yards of new macadam road, laying 2,800 linear feet cobblestone gutter, laying 300 linear feet cement walk, and grading, spreading top soil, and


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sowing grass seed for about 14,370 square yards of lawn. In that section of the grounds inclosed by and about buildings J, K, L, Oaks A and B, 2,400 linear feet of cement walk have been laid and about 10,300 square yards of lawn completed.”253 (Location: 2s, t)

Work was also undertaken around earlier buildings. Areaways around the Rest and the Center Building received grates or pipe railings. A small brick addition was made to the laundry, and the circular reservoir behind the Center Building was connected by pipes to the “condensing apparatus” in the power plant.254 Further efforts were made to control erosion and the difficulties of the railroad spur: “Finally, 1,200 feet of the track, including all that portion which was in danger of slipping, was rebuilt. In doing this, ditches were dug all along the track, so that water which came down the sidehill would be deflected into the sluices, and thus prevented from soaking into the fill. In one place, … a 30-foot trestle was constructed. At the same time the track was relaid so as to straighten out and reduce the worst curves.”255 (12)

1908 June 30. By the end of the fiscal year, more work had been accomplished in reorganizing the grounds as a result of the construction of the hospital expansion. Almost 10,000 square yards of lawn were established “on the plateau in the rear of J and K buildings.” (Location: 2s) Much of the rest of the year’s work centered on the laundry: “The necessary grading has been done and about 1,570 square yards of concrete base put in for the new vitrified block driveway near the laundry, and for a smaller driveway in the rear of R and P buildings. One thousand two hundred linear feet of 9 by 12 inch concrete base has been put in and a contract let for furnishing and setting 1,200 linear feet of granite curb for these driveways. One hundred and thirty-two thousand vitrified paving blocks have been purchased for these driveways, and also for the proposed new road to the stable. … A considerable amount of grading has been done in the rear of the laundry and a cinder road built, thus making the rear entrance to the laundry accessible to teams.”256 (Location: 1o)

At the greenhouses, a concrete pit was constructed for the storage of manure, and

a 30 by 130-foot concrete floor was laid “on an open space adjacent to the power house” to provide for coal storage. Near the river, the building that housed the earlier pumping equipment was torn down, and the wooden crib surrounding the sump was replaced with a 16 by 16-foot concrete pit. The river water from this pit was pumped “directly into the fountain basin at the rear of the main building” for use in fighting fires.257 (Location: a, e)

Plantings around the grounds continued, and the hospital also established a nursery: “Last summer groups of dwarf evergreens were planted in front of B and C buildings. They have all done well and added materially to the appearance of the grounds. … Three hundred and forty trees were purchased in April for the purpose of establishing a nursery. These include 175 shade trees, 65 flowering


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trees, 30 of pendulous habit, 50 Japanese maples, and 20 evergreens. These have been planted and are doing well. These trees can be moved at the proper season and planted about the new buildings where there is need of shade.”258 (Location: unknown)

1909 June 30. During the year, the vitrified block roadway near the laundry and its

granite curbs were completed. The space around the laundry was graded and planted with grass seed, and concrete walks were built. Concrete walks were also laid “along the subway” between the east and west parts of the campus. In addition, “[t]he slopes of the cut through the subway have been sodded, and about 800 linear feet of concrete wall built along the foot of these slopes.” 259

Work began on construction of an addition to the power house (called a “new boiler house” in the annual report) during the year. (Building no. 57; location: 4s) Construction involved deep excavation work “so that the concrete retaining wall could be placed at the base of the hill and thereby make the construction safe.”260

1910 June 30. By this date, Hitchcock Hall (Building no. 37; location: 1p) and the

addition to the power house were completed. As a result of this work, the former boiler house (Building no. 52) was abandoned. The purpose of this new boiler house was to centralize the heating and lighting plant. To complete this work, a concrete tunnel was built from the power house to the old boiler house to connect the former with the older hospital buildings. In addition, the wood conduit between the power house and the new hospital buildings was replaced with a concrete tunnel 261

The Annex behind Howard Hall, a temporary building constructed to relieve overcrowding while the hospital expansion was under way, was demolished during the year. (Location: 4n) Also, “[a]n automatic drinking fountain has been purchased and will be erected on the grounds where it will be of use, particularly to patients.”262 (Location: unknown) Beginning in this fiscal year, many of the open porches of the cottage-plan buildings began to be enclosed for use as sun parlors and wards for tuberculosis patients. 263 The work continued for several years. December 23. On this date, the Secretary of the Interior appointed a six-member committee to develop a policy for future growth of hospital. The committee included the secretaries of the Interior, War, and Navy departments, the Attorney General, the commissioners of the District of Columbia, and the Board of Visitors of St. Elizabeths.264

1911 June 18. Dr. I. W. Blackburn died. Blackburn had come to St. Elizabeths in 1884 as the hospital’s pathologist, helping to usher in a physiological approach to the study of mental illness.265


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June 30. A new grand stand was built to be used in Memorial Day ceremonies. The grand stand replaced an earlier one “at Poplar Spring.”266 The new grand stand was apparently also located at Poplar Spring because future Memorial Day services were held there.267 Poplar Spring may have been located northwest of the greenhouses. In a 1928 description of a tour of the grounds, Alvah Godding uses the term “Poplar ravine” to refer to an area extending southwesterly from the boundary wall past Burrows Cottage (Building no. 18).268 (Location: 3g, h)

Work on the grounds included grading “in the front and rear of Retreat building” and the laying of “vitrified conduit” for electrical wiring in the steam tunnels. In addition, “[t]wo hundred square yards of vitrified block pavement have been laid in the rear of the A building and about 544 square yards near the new extension to the bakery. One hundred and eighty-four square yards of asphalt block pavement have been relaid, 182 linear feet of curb reset, and 124 yards of brick pavement relaid in the vicinity of the bakery extension. … Concrete walks have been laid to the entrance of A building and the side entrance of B building. A concrete walk has been laid between the benches in one of the greenhouses to replace an old board walk that had decayed.” Three transformer houses were constructed behind Building A to accommodate electrical wiring. 269

The hospital was connected to the District of Columbia water system, which had recently been extended to Nichols Avenue. The city water connection was intended only as a supplement to the hospital’s own artesian well water.270

In hearings before a House of Representatives committee, Superintendent White

described St. Elizabeths’ policy on visitors at this time: “We welcome visitors. The work of caring for insane persons is a thankless task, and the character of the work is usually misunderstood by the public. What I believe to be so is this, that the institution always should be wide open for anybody who wants to come. The person standing outside of the institution may have the wrong idea about it, but if he comes to see it we will make a friend of him. One day of each week we have set aside as visiting day. We do not, of course, send them around the wards where violently insane persons are kept or where they use violent or obscene language, but they are entirely free to visit the other wards. We have visitors of all classes – physicians, lawyers, and the public generally may visit the institution.”271

By this date, the work of deepening the Anacostia River channel and filling the flats along the shore, including those bordering the hospital, had been begun by the War department.272

1912 June 30. Although the southern entrance to the hospital grounds had been shifted

to a location behind the site of the Administration building in 1900, plans were made during fiscal year 1912 to move the entrance back to the north: “With a view to locating the permanent entrance to the hospital grounds at a point about


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200 feet north of the present south entrance, a road has been graded and paved with brick to the new location, and an inset has been provided for in the wall.”273

Work continued in reconditioning the grounds: “About 550 feet of the old wooden fence around the Allison group, which was in bad repair, has been replaced with a wire fence. About 950 linear feet of concrete walk 5 feet wide has been laid, and about 1,700 linear feet of granite curb and 1,300 linear feet of old cobble gutter has been replace by brick gutters.”274 The establishment of the nursery provided means to landscape the grounds: “Trees have been transplanted from the nursery to the triangle near the C building [location: 2x], to the grounds around the pathological department [location: 1o], in the vicinity of J and K Buildings [location: 2s], and the grounds around the Richardson group of buildings [location: East Campus].”275

1913 June 30. During the fiscal year, brick gutters were constructed between the

Center Building and the Administration Building. (Location: 1o, 2t) An iron railing was constructed “at the head on both sides of the subway leading across Nichols Avenue for additional safety. This place seemed especially unsafe on account of the apparent attraction to boys from the neighborhood who came in and used this place for a playground.” (Location: 2x) A gate was also installed at the east entrance to the subway, which was locked at eight o’clock each night, “in this manner keeping out an undesirable class of vehicles which in the dusk traverse the grounds at full speed, endangering the residents of this reservation.”276

The year also saw a large amount of work related to the railroad spur. (Location:

3b, e, 5i, m, r) The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad inspector condemned the spur’s trestle over the coal pockets, which was rebuilt. Approximately 1,000 railroad ties were replaced. The car scales were also condemned, and replacement (using steel rather than wood beams) was in progress. On November 5, 1912, the locomotive house near the pumping station burned. This resulted in replacement of the locomotive itself, but no mention was made of replacing its shelter. It may have been at this time that the locomotive house site was moved because a 1927 Congressional report placed the building near the power plant, perhaps in the location of current Building no. 55. (Location: 4r) A building was constructed alongside the track in which to crush and inspect coal samples.277 (Location: unknown)

“A large tent has been purchased for use in the female group so that the colored patients on a warm day can get out in the open air and be shielded from the sun. The use of this has been so successful that another one has been ordered and will be put in place in a short time.”278 (Location: 1k, l?)


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1914 June 30. By June, five buildings (no longer extant) in which to house tuberculosis patients had been completed: “These buildings are one story in height, about 142 ½ feet long, and 16 feet wide, and are built to hold 20 patients. They face the south, in order to get maximum advantages of sunlight. … The walks and approaches to these cottages have been laid out and graded, the lawns seeded, and flower beds planted between and around them. Settees have been placed on the lawn for the use of the patients.”279 A 1938 site plan of St. Elizabeths shows two of these buildings adjacent to Building J (Building no. 66).280 (Location: 2s)

“The greenhouse in which palms, ferns, and other plants were kept has been practically rebuilt, the whole building being overhauled and new side walls erected. It is now in use.” (Location: 3l) In addition, 19 new fire hydrants were installed, and seven of the old hydrants relocated. (Location: unknown) 281

“The north porch of Oaks A1 has been closed and the porch made ready for

occupancy to be used as a dining room. It became necessary after closing this porch to find other means of conveying the food from the Toner kitchen to the Oaks buildings. This was provided for by constructing a covered passageway leading from the Toner kitchen to the Oaks B porch.”282 (Location: 2s)

The new southern entrance to the hospital was established during the fiscal year: “At the new entrance the road has been cut through and completed, and only the new gatehouse and gates are needed.”283

1915 June 30. Work was completed during the fiscal year on a wall around Howard

Hall: “[T]his building is now entirely inclosed, it only being necessary to have the yard sodded and one iron door put in place in the entrance way before the entire work has been completed. The inclosure has been graded, concrete walks laid out, and tool-proof guards put over the basement windows. … The wall inclosing the criminal building is 24 feet high and 1,200 feet long, surrounding a courtyard some distance from the building itself. This wall is built at a distance of approximately 50 feet from the building and does not, therefore, shut out air or sunlight.”284 A later report describes the enclosure as “a reinforced concrete wall, about 22 feet high with a thickness of 4 feet at base and narrowing to 2 feet 6 inches at top.”285

“A public comfort station has been built adjacent to the north gate for the benefit of the residents of the hospital reservation and the visitors.”286 (Location: 1l?; no longer extant). The entry does not state whether this comfort station replaced or was built in addition to the one built in 1905.

In addition to the Memorial Day services at St. Elizabeths, “[t]here is a concert by the band in some portion of the grounds on Tuesdays and Fridays during the summer season.”287


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Work continued in upgrading the heat and electrical distribution system of the hospital: “The old wooden aqueducts back of the power house and south of the old boiler house, which formerly carried all steam and hot-water pipes and electric wires connecting the power house with the various buildings, and which have been looked upon as a menace to the institution for many years, highly flammable and in a dangerous condition, have been abandoned and torn down. The pipes and wires in these aqueducts have been transferred to concrete tunnels in connection with the remodeling of the power, heating, and lighting plant.”288 Filling of the Anacostia flats northwest of the hospital had been completed by this date. St. Elizabeths’ administration hoped this land would be transferred from the War department for use as farmland, although the War department had already leased some of the land to private concerns.289

1916 June 30. During the fiscal year the ground enclosed by the wall at Howard Hall

(6,480 square yards) was given over to cultivation: “Cucumbers, radishes, watermelons, tomatoes, cabbages, potatoes, corn, etc., have been planted. About 1,000 square yards of cement walk has been laid, some 16 cement settees placed in various positions about this walk, and sanitary drinking fountains also installed. This garden gives occupation for a considerable number of the patients, most of whom are glad of the opportunity to work and take a great interest in its cultivation. … A considerable proportion of this land has been planted with broom corn, it being hoped that enough of this material may be raised in the future to supply the broom shop, which is also in the basement of Howard Hall.”290

“The old house known as the Barrett House, used by a former herdsman, has been moved across Nichols Avenue and set up near the detached kitchen and remodeled for use as a store. The store has been in operation now for several months and has fully justified itself.”291 (Location: 1o) The Historic Resources Management Plan identifies the store established in 1916 as the present Canteen, Building no. 39.292 July 1. After more than a half-century of informal use, “St. Elizabeths” became the official name for the hospital in the appropriations bill signed on this day: “After the passage of this Act the Government Hospital for the Insane shall be known and designated as Saint Elizabeths Hospital.”293

1917 June 30. By this date, the centralization of the power, heat, and electricity

generation at the power house was completed. The fuel at the power house was coal. Ashes from burning the coal were pumped into a tank outside the power house and then transported to “the ash dump.” (Location: unknown). In order to provide sufficient storage for the fuel, the coal pockets on the north side of the power house were being “enlarged and extended the full length of the power house.”294


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Work began during the year to enlarge the old boiler house (Building no. 52; location: 1o) for use as a new icehouse. The work involved shortening the existing smoke stack to “half its height.”295

An unstated number of drinking fountains were purchased and installed during the fiscal year, including “one near the building known as Oaks-A.” Also in the area, “Two new tents were purchased and placed in front of Oaks Building for the use of the patients during last summer. This enabled all the able-bodied patients of this section of the hospital to be out of doors during the pleasant weather.” The porch surrounding Oaks-B was enclosed. 296 (no longer extant; location: 2s)

An effort was made to keep the lawns healthy: “New street washers have been placed in various portions of the grounds in order to keep the lawns in good condition, as otherwise when there is lack of rain they burn up and do not present a good appearance.” However, due to the United States’ entry into World War I, some of these lawns were placed under cultivation: “On the account of the extraordinary situation in this country, it becomes necessary to conserve our food, and the hospital decided that it was necessary to plant a greater area in an endeavor to get larger crops. Carrying out this idea, larger quantities of seeds of various classes were purchased and places put under cultivation that heretofore had been used for lawns, playgrounds, etc. Among other places was the area in front of the administrative group, where a field of potatoes, taking in an area of one acre, has been planted and gives promise of a good crop. [Location: 2t] The old baseball field is at present being plowed, preliminary to planting wheat. [Location: 1j?] After this field has been plowed, we will then begin to plow what is known as Prospect Hill for the same purpose. [Location: 1g, k, 3f, g?] … In the area between the greenhouses and Burrows Cottage, where formerly plants were raised, the space is now devoted to raising cabbage, and many barrels have been produced.” 297 [Location: 3h, l] (Later documents indicate that “Prospect Hill” refers to the area now known as “the Point,” north of the Center Building.)

1918 June 30. Construction began on a series of semipermanent buildings east of

Nichols Avenue to accommodate 504 patients.298 Construction began on a new shop and storehouse building north of Howard Hall.

(Building no. 12; location: 4n) The building was being constructed mostly by patient labor. Conversion of the boiler house to an ice plant was completed.299

Work was also undertaken at the subway: “The sides of the wall leading to the subway have been used by employees, patients, and their friends to shorten their entrance and exit from the hospital grounds or going from one part of the grounds to another. The need of having some method of getting to the roadway from the subway to the east of Nichols Avenue became so manifest it was decided to build


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concrete steps leading to this subway, and this has been completed and these steps have been in use for several months.”300

1919 June 30. Work was completed on seven semipermanent wards, a dining hall, and

a kitchen east of Nichols Avenue.301 This work constitutes the first large-scale expansion of facilities on what has become known as the East Campus since the first patient buildings were constructed there in 1904. Future expansion would be concentrated on the East Campus.

Difficulties in maintaining the railroad spur continued: “The heavy rains during the spring caused a washout under the track at a compound curve just below the power house. This was a dangerous place and required the use of several thousand yards of ashes to fill in the hole that was left by this washout.”302 (Location: 4r?)

During the year a pipe line was laid from the hospital’s reservoir at the pumping station “to the aviation camp of the Army located on Bolling Field, and an additional extension from the Army aviation camp to the hydroplane camp of the Navy located on the water’s edge of this same field.”303 (Location: a, e) Bolling Field was located on the land reclaimed from the Anacostia River. Other work took place in the area of the pumping station: “The space on the hospital side of the railroad switch is a very low piece of ground which has been used as a dumping ground by the hospital. Water accumulated in this place has been drained by the construction of a viaduct under the railroad track, draining this space into the unclaimed area known as ‘Anacostia Flats.’ … The dumping of waste on the hospital property clogged up the aqueduct under the tracks and prevented drainage of the waste water. … Trenches were dug by the hospital upon our land, and with the cooperation of the War Department authorities a trench was continued under the track into the District of Columbia’s outlet sewer. This drained the water from the hospital dumping ground and the place was regraded and the whole place improved. Orders have been given forbidding the using of this place for a dumping ground in the future.”304 (Location 3b, 3?)

1920 June 30. Two new buildings were constructed during the year, one for the Red

Cross (location: 1p) and another for the Knights of Columbus (location: unknown). The Red Cross building is described as a “recreation building.” The Red Cross also donated “the framework of a temporary building,” which was moved to St. Elizabeths for use by the Knights of Columbus.305

A new track scale was constructed “on the off-shoot to the left of the track just in front of the fuel sample house.”306 (Location: unknown)

Several sewer lines were replaced because tree roots had grown through the terra-cotta pipe. New sewer lines were constructed of terra cotta laid in concrete. This work continued for several years.307


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After a study of sanitary conditions at the hospital, “active work on rat extermination was begun. The first attack was made on the ravines, followed by work on the inside of buildings, then on the tunnels and kitchens.”308

“The portion of the lawns and grounds that have been turned over to the farm for cultivation and the raising of truck garden products were given back to the landscape gardener during the year and made over into lawns. … During the war period, these lawns received the benefit of intensified cultivation and a large addition to the hospital larder resulted – such articles as peas, potatoes, kale, spinach, and other items of supply were raised in large quantities.”309 Further efforts were made to beautify the grounds: “Flower pots were placed in various parts of the institution and grounds, and this lends color and brightness to the surroundings. In the vineyard and orchard, under the supervision of this department [Lawns and Grounds], many thousands of pounds of grapes, hundreds of bushels of pears and apples, and many quarts of cherries, currants, and figs were grown.”310

1921 June 30. Completed during the fiscal year was the enlarged coal pocket: “It is of

reinforced steel and extends the full length of the power house, with three lines of track. 311

Although the 1920 annual report stated that areas devoted to vegetable gardening during World War I had been returned to lawn during that fiscal year, a document at the National Archives suggests that the re-lawning of one area did not take place until the fall of 1921. In his contribution to the superintendent’s annual report for fiscal year 1922, Alvah Godding states that “[i]n the fall the Prospect Hill lawn and the lawn between Borrows Cottage and gate which has been used as war garden were regraded and sown with grass seed.” Godding’s title is not mentioned in the handwritten summary of work accomplished.312 This entry is the first documentary reference to Alvah Godding discovered in research for this study. The son of Superintendent William Godding, Alvah has traditionally been associated with the development of the grounds of St. Elizabeths.313 The 1920 annual report states that the war gardens were returned to the authority of “the landscape gardener” – presumably Godding’s position at this time. He is also likely to have been the head of the “Lawns and Grounds” department referred to in the 1920 annual report, which was responsible for the vineyard, orchard, and gardens on the West Campus in addition to the landscaping around the hospital buildings.

1922 June 30. The shop and storehouse building north of Howard Hall was completed, as was a garage east of Nichols Avenue. The tunnel connecting the hospital utility lines was also extended from B Building (Building 75; location: 2t) to the cow barn on the East Campus.314


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“One of the greenhouses was practically rebuilt, new concrete walls and new concrete benches being constructed throughout.”315 Other work accomplished on the grounds included repair of the rose house, filling in the “cavities” of 28 trees, compilation of a list of tree varieties at the hospital, and spraying trees for pests. The hospital’s vineyard, at the foot of Prospect Hill, produced 7,068 pounds of grapes, 5 12/20 bushels of apples, 570 quarts of cherries, and 50 quarts of currants.316

Work on the circulation system consisted of the reconditioning of roads: “The roads were resurfaced from the nurses’ home [Building no. 69; location: 2x) under the subway to the Richardson group, and on around the Richardson group of buildings. … The driveway back of the Toner kitchen was concreted and a concrete retaining wall built along the porch from Oaks to Toner kitchen.” (Location: 2s). To assist in the improvement of the hospital’s sanitary conditions: “Concrete pits have been built for garbage retainers along the roads near kitchens and dining rooms where garbage accumulates.”317

1923 June 30. During the fiscal year, “[p]ublic comfort stations have been erected in

various parts of the grounds.” In addition, “[t]he hospital has planted many trees in various parts of the grounds, set out flower pots, rose bushes, and built trellises around the buildings. Included among the trees were Japanese cherry trees given to the hospital by the Public Buildings and Grounds Commission.”318 (Location: unknown) The “Commission” is probably the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, the Army Corps of Engineers office responsible for care and maintenance of many federal buildings and lands in Washington from 1867 until 1925.

In an attempt to resolve problems with erosion around the railroad spur, the track was slightly relocated: “Seven hundred feet of the railroad track were rebuilt by moving the location of the curve to a point having a better roadbed and also making a more uniform grade and curve.”319 (Location: 4r)

1924 June 30. An employees cafeteria was established near the subway: “The two

portable buildings received from the Veterans’ Bureau were combined into one and with some changes erected into a building to be used as a cafeteria. This building has been completed and will be ready July 1 to be used as a cafeteria for employees of the hospital.”320 (Building no. 70; Location: 2x)

More widespread use of automobiles resulted in changes to the roadways: “The roads within the grounds in a number of places have been widened, new concrete curb built, and 34,575 square feet of concrete road laid. The roads require considerable overhauling and widening in order to accommodate automobile traffic.”321


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To improve sanitary conditions, an incinerator was built: “A brick incinerator with brick stack and concrete platform was built along the ravine below the power house for disposing of waste material, such as wet garbage, papers, boxes, and trash that should be destroyed.”322 (Location: 4n, r) The 1938 site plan locates the incinerator approximately 400 feet west of the power house near the railroad track.

The 1900 southern entrance to the hospital was permanently closed: “The wall in the rear of the Administration Building was extended to take in the part formerly set in to be used as a gate. This place has been closed by erecting a stone wall to match the old wall as nearly as possible.”323

Fiscal year 1924 is one of the few years for which a separate report from the Lawns and Grounds department has been found. Its entries provide an idea of the kind of work that likely took place on a regular basis during this time:

“Grading and seeding of grass was done where curbing was put in for cement roads and ditch running from water tower to Richardson group….

“Twenty dead or defective trees were removed from the lawns and twentyfive cut in the woods and made into cord wood and posts. …

“Fourteen Southern Magnolia trees planted four near Q.Building six at J.&.K.Building and four near West Lodge. …

“The English ivy on Center Building was all trimmed back to the wall. …

“From the Vineyard 7285Lbs.of grapes, 64bushels of apples 92bushels of crab apples 64 bushels of pears 40 quarts of figs 852 quarts of cherries and 152 quarts of currants were gathered. …

“Report of the Florist. At this date the flower beds, garden, greenhouses and vases were planted and stocked with an assortment of bulbs, plants and seeds to decorate the grounds and to produce cut flowers and potted plants to decorate the hospital buildings.” The report provides a list of cut flowers distributed and bulbs and plants in beds, garden and greenhouses. The list includes the names of 42 bulbs or plants in the hospital’s flower beds, garden, and greenhouse and mention of 12 annuals and 40 biennials and perennials. 324 The Lawns and Grounds reports reviewed for this study all reported the amount of fruit produced each year and the number and varieties of flowers and plants placed around the hospital.

1925 June 30. Road work continued during the fiscal year: “During the past year a

road was built from C building, female service, to R building, used for hospital purposes, and extending the other way from C building to the Red Cross building, a total of 62,700 square feet. [Location: 2x] A section of concrete road was built


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from Atkins Hall to the first gate, a total of 18,630 square feet. [Location: 1l, p] Other sections of road were built, making a total of 85,000 square feet of roads throughout the grounds.”325

Seven cottages to house hospital staff were constructed around the hospital. (Building nos. 15, 17, 27, 67, and 76; location: 1j, 1j, 1l, 2s, 1p) The bungalows were occupied “by the chiefs of the various adjacent services.” 326 The areas around these cottages were graded, covered with topsoil, and seeded.327 A propagation building was also completed. (Location: 3l) The building was 80 by 11 feet “with concrete benches, and chimney for a separate heating boiler.” A concrete cooling pond, 94 by 66 feet, was also constructed west of the power house.328 (Location: 4r)

Work also continued in the ongoing effort to improve sanitary conditions. During the year, concrete platforms were built near the hospital’s kitchens. Covered garbage cans were placed on the platforms. The garbage was picked up by trucks and delivered to the piggery for consumption by the hospital’s pigs. The “underground garbage pits” formerly used were abandoned and covered with dirt. (Location: unknown) The tracks between Garfield and the kitchen on which food cars were rebuilt with steel rails laid in concrete.329

One aspect of work that the Lawns and Grounds department undertook from time

to time was the removal of briars and undergrowth “on the hill above the railroad.” This was done to reduce the risk of fire resulting from sparks from the locomotive igniting dry brush. The department also continued to remove dead trees from the plateau and woods and to cut these trees into fire wood. During the year, “basket willow cuttings” were received from the Agriculture Department. Department head Godding noted that the cuttings were “doing pretty well considering the dry weather we have had.” Two hundred settees were purchased and placed on the grounds where not enough such furniture existed.330

White’s requested funding for the coming fiscal year declined due to new

legislation that allowed the Veterans’ Bureau to hospitalize mentally ill servicemen in its own facilities, thereby reducing the burden on St. Elizabeths.331

1926 June 30. The transition to concrete roads continued during fiscal year 1926 as

40,100 square feet were built, along with 1,450 linear feet of concrete curb. The enclosure of porches also continued, with the porches of Retreat, Allison D, and one of the Dix buildings glazed for use as dayrooms, wards, or dining rooms. A gatehouse for the south entrance was completed during the year.332

Despite the provisions for patients to be housed at Veterans Bureau facilities, St. Elizabeths continued to be overcrowded. White estimated that the hospital housed 500 more patients than the facility was designed for.333


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1927 June 30. The annual report explains the reasoning behind the continued effort to build concrete roads at the hospital: “Most of the roads were built before the advent of automobiles and are not wide enough nor have they sufficient foundation to withstand the wear and tear of heavy machines. During the year 56,640 square feet of new roads and 4,620 feet of concrete curb were laid.”334 The new roads ran from the Red Cross building to the Toner Kitchen and the Oaks Building and from the north gate to the front of the Center Building. The remaining macadam roads were repaired and rolled.335

Twenty-five drinking fountains were installed around the hospital in order to end

the practice of providing water coolers. No mention is made as to the location of these fountains or whether they were installed indoors or out.336

Work continued on the replacement of old rails from the kitchen to various

buildings with steel rails laid in concrete. This was accomplished between the kitchen and the east wing of the main hospital building and to the Detached Kitchen. A 93-foot concrete steam tunnel was also built between Home and Relief buildings.337

The front lawn of Q Building (Building no. 68; location: 2x) was converted into a flower and vegetable garden.338

The Knights of Columbus ceased their operations at St. Elizabeths and gave their

equipment (mostly for manufacture of toys) to the hospital. The disposition of the Knights’ building is not mentioned.339

During the year, an investigation of the hospital was conducted by Congress. The

resulting report, issued on December 26, provides some information on St. Elizabeths’ landscape at the time. The hospital, for instance, had one baseball field and three tennis courts. The baseball field may be the one located near the 1924 storehouse and shop building (Building no. 12) that is seen in several photographs of the period.340 (Location: 1j) Three tennis courts exist today northeast of the Center Building. The westernmost one has been dated to end of the nineteenth century, while the other two post-date the period of significance.341

The report states that 62.25 acres of Blagden Farm (the West Campus) were under cultivation at the time of the report. On the hospital’s other holdings, approximately 385 acres were being cultivated. On the Blagden Farm, the garden comprised 25 acres, lawns 15, the vineyard 14, and the greenhouses 2. The remaining acreage is unaccounted for. In addition, under agreement with the War department, the hospital planted 25 acres of the reclaimed land along the Anacostia with corn for cattle feed. The grounds were under the care of a “foreman gardener,” assisted by 12 employees and five patients.342


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The garden on the Blagden tract was located “near the pumping station.” (Location: 3a, b, e, f?) In 1925, the garden supplied 170 bushels of peppers, 641 bushels of tomatoes, 76 bushels of tomatoes, green; 681 bushels of parsnips, 60 bushels of oyster plant, 20,400 bushels of onions; 8,127 bushels of beets, 5,135 bushels of parsley, 10,567 bushels of carrots, 18,460 bushels of radishes, 307 heads of celery, 7,780 heads of lettuce, 76 watermelons, 2,710 cantaloupes, and 963 eggplants. Four hundred fruit trees on what is now the west campus, combined with the 110 at Godding Croft on the Potomac, produced 870 bushels of apples, 400 bushels of pears, and 150 quarts of figs in 1927. The vineyard contained 1,500 grape vines and produced 17,716 pounds of grapes in 1927. (Location: 3b, e, f) The six greenhouses at St. Elizabeths raised plants for 50 flower beds and gardens. In 1926, 44,942 plants were produced for these beds, along with 2,224 potted plants and 59,086 cut flowers. 343

1928 June 30. Due to the reduction in land available for cultivation resulting from the

construction of new buildings, St. Elizabeths conducted a survey of its farm department to determine the most efficient use of the land it had available. Both food production and the “healthful employment of patients” were considered primary purposes of the farm department. St. Elizabeths concluded that it was “necessary to reduce, to some extent, certain classes of garden truck that could be easily purchased in the local markets and use the land for the purpose of increasing the silage necessary to feed the dairy herd.”344 It is unclear whether this decision had any effect on the cultivated land on the West Campus.

Work continued on upgrading the circulation system: “Built roads and walks and laid necessary surface drains in front and side of Building Allison-A; driveways and curves in front of B and C buildings; concrete road from the rear of Q Building to the cafeteria; truck driveway entrance and large door to old tin shop for laundry use; road from Toner kitchen around the Toner Building, and walk back of Atkins Hall. In all, about 56,000 square feet of roads and walks.”345

Drinking fountains continued to be installed, including “several places on the grounds.”346

October 3. St. Elizabeths celebrated the 25th anniversary of White’s appointment as superintendent by presenting him with a watch. At the ceremonies White acknowledged the employees who had been employed by the hospital for 25 or more years. One of these was Alvah Godding, who had worked at St. Elizabeths for 29 years.347 A transcription of a tour of the hospital grounds at this time led by Godding stated that 170 varieties of trees could be found at St. Elizabeths.348

1929 June 30. During the fiscal year walks were built around parts of the detached

buildings. Curbs and roads were built in front of E Building (Building no. 69; (location: 2x), behind the Toner Building and Toner kitchen (location: 2s), and from K Building around the Oaks buildings (location: 2s). Walks were also


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constructed around the porches on each end of Q Building (Building no. 68; location: 2w, x), and curbs and roads were built behind M, C, A, and B buildings (Building nos. 72-75; location: 2t, x) All this work was done in concrete.349

The work of the foreman gardener included upgrading the lawns and flower beds: “The hospital grounds include several acres that have been grassed and made into lawns around the buildings. Special efforts have been made to keep these lawns green, and attractive flower beds have been laid out at various parts of the reservation. Along the colonnade between A and B and A and C Buildings beds of crape myrtle bushes have been planted. These are now in bloom and very attractive. [Location: 2t] The palm house requires extensive repairs and it is now being rebuilt.”350

1930 June 30. Arrangements were made to extend the District of Columbia sewer

system into the hospital grounds. The actual construction was expected to take place in the weeks after the end of the fiscal year.351 (Location: unknown)

1931 June 30. Superintendent White reported an increase in the productivity of the

garden during the fiscal year: “From the garden, limited quantities of table greens were available throughout the winter for the first time, and during the past three months the hospital has been receiving a variety of high-class greens and other succulent vegetables in regular deliveries to the full extent of its requirements without waste.”352

An addition was also made in greenhouse capacity: “A cold-frame forcing house was erected out of old material, using sash from the hotbeds for the roof. The benefits derived from this effort were encouraging, and it is expected to extend this feature of the work during the autumn.”353 (Location: 3l) The construction department was engaged during the fiscal year in the construction of concrete roads, laying sewer lines (presumably to the connection with the District’s sewer system), and building of a pipe tunnel to the East Campus. The new tunnel to the East Campus was to accommodate utilities for new and planned construction, which included a tuberculosis building and the first two of several “continuous treatment” buildings.354

1932 June 30. The improvement in the production of the garden continued: “The

records from the garden show material improvement in some directions, particularly in the larger and more constant supply of salad and table greens. … During 1926-27 1,237 bushels of these were contributed toward this supply. In 1931-32 kale and spinach, with 15 other varieties added, contributed 6,161 bushels. … The study of the garden has been continued in an endeavor to perfect the garden program to a point where 1,000 bushels a month can be made available throughout the entire year. … A complete analysis of the whole garden output has


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not yet been made. … Similar effort is being made toward improving the available supply of other classes of vegetables.”355

Work on the grounds included the rearrangement and rehabilitation of areas disturbed by new construction. Most of this work took place on the East Campus. The tunnel built from the powerhouse to the new construction was described as constructed of reinforced concrete, 6 feet 6 inches high, 6 feet wide, and running nearly 5,000 feet. The nursery was augmented to supply losses in the hospital’s tree inventory: “During the drought about two years ago the hospital lost about 100 trees. One hundred and seventy trees were purchased for the nursery, which gives the hospital now about 400 trees on hand for planting about the grounds.”356 During the fiscal year, the hospital was connected to the District’s water system at Bolling Field: “This now furnishes the hospital with complete water service from the District of Columbia.”357

1934 June 30. The railroad spur and its sidings were completely overhauled during the

fiscal year. Work included changing “the location of the track along the old cemetery to reduce the curves and improve the grade.”358 (Location: 5i)

The porches of Allison A were enclosed to provide more dormitory space.359

(Location: 1p) 1935 June 30. The porch of Oaks A was enlarged and enclosed, using mostly brick and

concrete. (Location: 2s) The hospital also began a transition away from the use of anthracite coal by installing gas ranges in the kitchens and a gas heating plant in the propagating house in the greenhouse complex. (Location: 3l) However, a new coal silo was constructed, probably near the power house. 360 (Location: 4r)

1936 June 30. Two new buildings (men’s and women’s receiving) opened during the

fiscal year east of Nichols Avenue. The grounds were reorganized and replanted around them.361

St. Elizabeths received funding from New Deal programs for several construction

projects. Included was the replacement of the wood porches at the Allison and Oaks buildings with concrete and brick porches with iron window sashes. (Location: 1p, 2s) Brick porches were also added to Garfield and Dawes. (Location: 1o) Another New Deal program grant funded the construction of a new storm sewer from the head of the power house ravine to a point below the incinerator. (Location: 4r, s) A new water tank was constructed east of Nichols Avenue.362

A concrete road was built from the general kitchen to Howard Hall in order to get fire equipment to the criminally insane ward. (Location: 4n) Concrete walks were laid between C and M buildings and between I and M. Pedestal drinking


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fountains were installed on the lawn between C and M buildings. 363 (Location: 2x)

E. RECENT LANDSCAPE CHRONOLOGY, 1937-2004 E1. Sources For the Recent Landscape Chronology The last period under review for the CLR is the longest and the least documented. Both Millikan and Devrouax & Purnell end their discussions of treatment philosophy and the physical development of the hospital in 1920 – essentially the end of the development of the West Campus. Winfred Overholser, who succeeded White as superintendent, provides a brief summary of treatment changes at St. Elizabeths between White’s death and 1955 in his “Historical Sketch of Saint Elizabeths Hospital” (Centennial Papers: Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1855-1955, Washington, D.C.: Centennial Commission, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1956). These changes include a strong emphasis on the benefits of psychiatry, drug therapy, various shock therapies, and arts therapies. St. Elizabeths’ annual reports, which continued until 1968, remain the foundation for the chronology for this period, although the level of detail contained in them diminished as the period progressed. Beginning in the 1920s, annual reports contained only brief summaries on construction and landscaping work accomplished. With the beginning of World War II, information on these topics dwindled further. By the 1950s, such reports were limited mostly to announcements of the opening of new buildings. A few contributions to annual reports by department heads were discovered during research for this study. Monthly reports on construction and landscape work do exist at the National Archives for this period, but the vast number of primary sources available and the limited research budget for the project prevented a review of this material. The annual reports for this period did not contain site plans or photographs of the hospital, as those of previous periods had. Five site plans deriving from other sources were discovered in research for this study: 1938 “St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C., Key Plan of Buildings” [west of

Nichols Avenue], December 14, 1938, Record Group 418, no. 22, National Archives

1945 Public Buildings Service, “Site Plan, St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C.,”

February 1945, A Report on the Treatment, Administration, and Service Facilities of St. Elizabeths Hospital, 1945, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library

1977 “Existing Conditions – Illustrative Plan,” figure 1, St. Elizabeths Master Plan,

1977, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library


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“Existing Hospital Reservation,” figure 7, St. Elizabeths Master Plan, 1977, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library

1985 “Site Plan, Saint Elizabeths Hospital,” Washington, D.C.?: s.n., 1985, Geography

& Map Reading Room, Library of Congress Except for the 1977 existing conditions plan, none of these documents illustrated vegetation. Inferences on changes to vegetation, topography, circulation and other landscape features were therefore derived from the annual reports and the hundreds of photographs from this period. These photographs reveal the use of asphalt paving and alterations in streetlights. In addition to these site plans, a series of details from a 1947 topographical survey also provided information. Photographs reviewed for this period include illustrations from the 1945 Public Buildings Service study of the hospital, which document each of the buildings. Numerous aerial photos of different aspects of the campus, as well as photographs of individual buildings, streets, and landscape features, dating from 1963, 1964, and 1968 also informed the chronology. A series of Historic American Buildings Survey photographs dates from 1979. The next large group of photographs of the West Campus dates from 2002. E2. Recent Landscape Chronology, 1937-2004 1937 March 7. William A. White died.364

June 30. The installation of brick and concrete porches on Oaks, Dawes, Garfield, and the Allison buildings was completed during the fiscal year ending on this date.365

October 6. Dr. Winfred Overholser was sworn in as superintendent of St.

Elizabeths.366 1938 January 8. Congress created the Commission on Mental Health to review

admission of District residents to St. Elizabeths.367

June 30. The lawns near Oaks D and Toner Kitchen were graded and reseeded during the fiscal year. (Location: 2s) The baseball field was regraded and reseeded, and a pipe railing was erected on the road passing the field.368 (Location: 4j)

“The large pond south of the Center Building has been drained, cleaned out, and greatly improved by repairs and larger flow of water; eight pond lilies in tubs on piers in a circle have been put in and an island planted with weeping willow tree and ornamental grasses.”369 (Location: 1o)

A separate underpass was constructed parallel to the original “subway” between the East and West campuses to provide for two-way vehicular traffic. (Location:


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2x) The original underpass was constructed in 1903, prior to the need to accommodate automobiles. The annual report for 1938 noted that it was dangerous for pedestrians to use the underpass when automobiles were present. With construction of the new underpass, the original subway was to be reserved strictly for the use of pedestrians.370 Concrete roads and curbs were built from the fire house (Building no. 41) past, and including the triangle in front of, Hitchcock Hall (Building no. 37) and on to C Building (Building no. 73). (Location: 1o, 2t, x) Concrete sidewalks were constructed between the fire house and Hitchcock Hall. The underground passageway connecting A, B, and C buildings was extended to M Building. (Building no. 72; location: 2x) The water tank in front of L Building (Building no. 64) was razed. (Location: 2s) It was no longer needed as a result of the construction of a new water tank on the East Campus.371

1939 June 30. The pedestrian underpass was repaved, and steps and a walk were built

from the underpass to the employees cafeteria. The porte-cochère on the north side of the Center Building was restored.372

1940 June 30. St. Elizabeths was removed from the jurisdiction of the Department of

the Interior as a result of an executive branch reorganization on this date. The hospital became part of the Federal Security Agency.373

1941 June 30. During the fiscal year, the “boundary wall back of the greenhouse,

which had been overturned on account of an accumulation of storm water,” was rebuilt. The Red Cross building was destroyed by fire.374

1942 Hagan Hall (Building no. 38) was constructed on the site of the earlier Red Cross

building.375 1944 June 30. The railroad spur was still in use to deliver coal to the power house, and

the hospital continued to experience difficulty with the location of the track: “An earth slide on our branch railroad track near the group of springs along the side hill has caused much trouble from time to time during the past year. When settlement occurred the road bed had to be filled and track re-tamped. The settlement on the bank was replaced by fill which was believed best for anchoring into the clay earth underneath, such as broken stone, concrete from road repairs, discarded paving brick, etc. The water from the several springs was collected and piped under the track to prevent the seepage from springs saturating the clay which would tend to cause the ground to slide. The fills which we have made from time to time apparently have stopped the settlement, as we have experienced no trouble for some time.”376 (Location: 4m, n, r)

The construction department also built curbs and graded around the West

Lodge.377 (Location: 1n, o)


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In the fall of 1944, “most of Nichols Avenue between the curb and the wall was

regraded and re-seeded to improve the appearance and enable us to use mowers in cutting it.”378 (1)

A photograph from this year shows weapon positions constructed in the

greenhouse area.379 These positions likely date from some time early in World War II. (Location: 3l)

1945 June 30. By this date William H. Mistr had become head of the Lawns and

Grounds department. It is unknown when Alvah Godding left this position. Among the activities Mistr noted in his contribution to the year’s annual report were watering the lawns and flower beds, cutting grass, trimming hedges and trees, planting pansies and tulip bulbs, and providing cut flowers and potted plants to the wards. The area from the pumping station to the power house was cleared of undergrowth. These are described as “usual” activities. The department also sprayed oak, elm, and cherry trees on the hospital lawns. Patients painted approximately 880 settees that were used on the lawns.380

“The Orchard produced 100 bushels of apples, 352 bushels of pears and 4,500 pounds of grapes during the past season.”381

December 21. Poet Ezra Pound admitted to St. Elizabeths, having been found by

four doctors (including Superintendent Overholser) to be unfit to stand trial for treason. He is assigned to Howard Hall.382

1946 Two major changes took place in the administration of the hospital. First, the

board of visitors, which had advised the superintendent since St. Elizabeths’ organization in 1855, was abolished. Secondly, patients from the Army and Navy would no longer be admitted to the hospital.383

June 30. A new warehouse and laundry building had been authorized by Congress by this date: “Construction work on the new warehouse and laundry building and also the building for infirm patients authorized by law and referred to in the 1945 report has been delayed owing to scarcity of materials.”384

Work by the construction department during the fiscal year consisted mostly of maintenance and repairs. This included the roads and walks throughout the hospital. “Several times” erosion under the railroad track was replaced with fill. A retaining wall was also built on the east side of the Home Building. 385 (Location: 1p)

The Lawns and Grounds department planted 17,000 plants around the grounds in the spring. The greenhouses produced more than 60,000 cut flowers for the wards. Patients painted 1,350 settees and cleared the wooded area from power


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house to pumping station. The vineyard produced 3,500 pounds of grapes and 83 bushels of apples.386 The production of the vineyard and orchard represents a significant decline since 1927, for instance, when 17,700 pounds of grapes and 870 bushels of apples were harvested. It is not clear whether this represents a shift away from fruit production, which may have occurred as the result changes in agricultural practices suggested by a farm survey in 1928 (see 1928 entry) or whether the vineyard and orchard were being phased out by this date. No specific references to fruit production are made in future annual reports. On a detail of a topographical survey conducted in 1947, the location of a grape arbor, vineyard, orchard, and “cultivated” ground are identified.387 However, in a spring 1948 aerial photograph, although it shows the slopes of Prospect Hill still laid out in agricultural fields, the number of fruit trees appears much less than the 400 mentioned in 1927.388

1947 February 4. Pound moved from Howard Hall to Chestnut ward on the second

floor of the wing immediately east of the Center Building. His room is described as looking north toward the tennis court and through hemlock trees toward the Capitol. Pound was later moved to the south side of the building to a room overlooking a small garden. Pound met regularly with other poets and scholars in an alcove in Chestnut ward or on the lawn outside.389

June 30. The annual report states that St. Elizabeths’ “truck gardens” provided 28,675 bushels of green vegetables and “other seasonable products.” No reference is made to the location of these gardens.390

The greenhouses produced lilies at Easter and poinsettias at Christmas in addition to other ornamental plants.391

The annual report requests the replacement of Howard Hall, the West Lodge, and

Oaks A, B, and C buildings. The buildings were inadequate to hospital needs, the report states.392

The locomotive house (Building no. 55) was constructed north of the power

house.393 1948 The hospital’s dairy herd was eliminated during the fiscal year “for reasons of

economy.” Plans to eliminate St. Elizabeths’ piggery were postponed due to an increase in meat prices.394

1949 June 30. Construction on the Warehouse, Laundry, and Shops Building (Building

no. 118; Location: 4n) began during the fiscal year. The appropriations act for 1950 authorized funding to demolish the Toner and Oaks buildings .395


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1951 March. By this date, St. Elizabeths had begun purchasing electrical energy.396 For the first time in its history, therefore, the hospital did not produce all its own power. The power plant continued to produce heat for the hospital.

November. The Warehouse, Laundry, and Shops building was largely occupied

by this date. Occupation of the building had been delayed for more than a year after the discovery of difficulties with drainage in this location. More than $100,000 in construction, including a retaining wall, was needed to address these problems.397

1952 June 30. St. Elizabeths gardens produced nearly 24,000 bushels of green

vegetables during the fiscal year, plus “large amounts” of asparagus, corn, and watermelon. It is unclear where the gardens referred to were located.398 Since the end of World War II, all food production, including the dairy, piggery, and poultry plant, was reported under farm activity in the annual reports. For more than 20 years prior to that date, the gardens, vineyard, and orchards – all of which occupied land on the West Campus – had been part of the Lawns and Grounds department and reported separately from the farm department. With the elimination of the dairy herd in fiscal year 1948, land would have been available on other hospital holdings for growing vegetables.

St. Elizabeths began to experience problems that faced other urban areas in the

post-war period – automobile traffic: “With the growth of the number of employees and the increase in the number of those owning cars the traffic problem is becoming a serious one. Expansion is being undertaken of some of the parking areas.”399 A topographic survey undertaken in 1947 showed no parking lots on the grounds of what is now the West Campus.400

1953 April 11. The Federal Security Administration was abolished. Its functions,

including the administration of St. Elizabeths Hospital, was transferred to the newly created Department of Health Education and Welfare.401

1954 June 30. The move of the laundry to its new home allowed the carpenter, cabinet

and mattress shop activities to be transferred to the former laundry building. (Building no. 49; location: 1o) With this move, the buildings that formerly housed those work therapy activities were demolished during the fiscal year. 402 A 1945 survey by the Public Buildings Service indicates that the carpenter shop was housed in a 1914 addition to the original laundry building, while the cabinet shop was housed in a small building constructed in 1886 south of the West Lodge. The location of the mattress shop is uncertain. The original laundry building was constructed in 1856 and was added to in 1886. It is not clear whether or not the 1856 laundry building was demolished at this time. A portion of this building may remain extant as Building no. 49.403


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Although plans had been made and an authorization received for the demolition of the Toner and Oaks buildings in 1950, the need for the bed space those buildings provided resulted in their preservation. With the construction of a new Receiving Building east of Nichols Avenue, the demolition of those buildings was requested once more.404 The piggery on the East Campus was abandoned after an epidemic required extinction of the herd.405

1956 June 30. The Oaks Building was vacated and “will be demolished in the near future.”406

1957 June 30. Projects under contract and in process include “the renovation of and

extension of street lighting.”407 1958 April 18. Indictment against Pound was dismissed, he was released from St.

Elizabeths. Later in 1958, Pound returned to Italy.408 1959 September. John Howard Pavilion (maximum security facility) opened on the

east campus. Patients were moved to the new facility from Howard Hall.409 1961 March. Howard Hall and the Toner and Oaks buildings had been demolished by

this date, according to an aerial photograph.410 1962 June 30. The construction of wings on the Administration Building (Building no.

74; location: 2t) began by this date.411 Also under construction at this time is the Anacostia Freeway (Interstate 295).

The construction of the highway “resulted in the loss of about 15 acres to the hospital.”412

1963 June 30. The wing additions to the Administration building were completed.413

This construction resulted in the removal of the open colonnades connecting the Administration Building to Buildings B and C.

The conversion of some areas of lawn to parking – for instance, behind dthe

Center Building, behind Buildings A, B, and C, and behind Q Building – appears to have begun by this time. In addition, the original lampposts have been replaced by this date with concrete posts topped by globe lamps, and the use of asphalt road surfaces has taken place. 414

1964 June 30. During the fiscal year, the hospital began negotiations “for the

demolition of the obsolete patient building replaced by that new structure.” The new building was the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Building, which


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opened in August 1963.415 This may refer to the Dawes wing, which was demolished in 1965.

October 6. Overholser died.416 1965 February 11. A ceremony takes place to inaugurate the beginning of the

demolition of the Dawes wing behind the Center Building.417

June 30. St. Elizabeths ended the production of food for its population: “The hospital farm ceased operation June 30, 1965. This acreage [Godding Croft, on the Potomac River], purchased in 1891-94, for many years supplied a portion of the fruits and vegetables used by the hospital. The land will be used for patients’ recreation and related purposes.”418

As a result of the construction of the Anacostia Freeway, a new pumping station

(Building no. 16) was constructed down the slope north of the Center Building. (Location: 3f) The old pumping station remained standing on the opposite side of the freeway.419 (Location: a, e)

1966 February. By this date, the ravine northwest of the greenhouses, as well as those

running behind the lettered buildings, the power house, and the ware house had been filled in.420 As discussed in the entry for 1911, this greenhouse ravine may have been the location of the grand stand at “Poplar Spring.”

1968 June 30. This fiscal year “was the first full year that NIMH [National Institutes of

Mental Health] had responsibility for the operation of Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. The Institute plans to demonstrate at Saint Elizabeths how large mental hospitals can become community-oriented treatment facilities assuming a key role in the national mental health program.”421

1979 April 26. St. Elizabeths Hospital (both the East and West campuses) was listed in

the National Register of Historic Places. The concrete lampposts, constructed around 1963, were replaced with cobra-style

streetlights by 1979.422 1980 May 4. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare reorganized as the

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).423 HHS retained responsibility for St. Elizabeths.

1981 A chain-link fence topped by barbed wire can be seen behind B Building

(location: 2t) in a photograph taken this year. The fence stands between the building and the parking lot to the east.424


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1984 November 8. The Saint Elizabeths Hospital and District of Columbia Mental Health Services Act (Public Law 98-621) was signed into law. The law transferred 21 hospital buildings to the District of Columbia. All but two of these buildings (Hitchcock Hall, Building no. 37, and Hagan Hall, Building no. 38) were located on the east campus. HHS retains responsibility for 53 buildings, most of which were on the West Campus, and their associated grounds.425

1985 By this date, according to a site plan of the hospital, the West Lodge had been

demolished.426 (Location: 1n, o) The West Lodge had remained standing at the time of a 1977 master plan for St. Elizabeths.427

1989 April 18. HHS, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the District of

Columbia signed a memorandum of agreement for the protection of historic resources at St. Elizabeths. HHS retained responsibility for the 53 buildings transferred to it in 1984, along with the Civil War Cemetery, the Orchard, vistas of the rivers and the city, the brick and stone wall encircling the hospital, and all landscaping associated with the buildings and structures.428

1991 March 7. The Secretary of the Interior designated St. Elizabeths (both campuses)

as a National Historic Landmark. 1993 September. The Historic Resources Management Plan identified 60 individual

landscape features on the St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus that contributed to the hospital’s historic significance.429

2001 September 20. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared

its holdings at St. Elizabeths in excess of its needs.430 2004 December 8. The General Services Administration (GSA) accepted responsibility

for managing federal holdings at St. Elizabeths from HHS.431 2005 May 26. Both campuses of St. Elizabeths were added to the District of Columbia

Inventory of Historic Sites.


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APPENDIX B: ENDNOTES 1 Director’s Order #28: Cultural Research Management Guideline, National Park Service, Chapter 2: Research (Release 5, 1997): 93. 2 Report to accompany Bill S. 44, 33rd Congress, 1st sess., S. rp. No. 57, January 23, 1854, 1-35. 3 Ibid., 1-2. 4 Devrouax & Purnell, St. Elizabeths Hospital Historic Resources Management Plan, prepared for the District of Columbia Office of Business and Economic Development, September 1993, 2:7-8. 5 General Services Administration (GSA), St. Elizabeths West Campus Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Cultural Resources Technical Report, December 2006, 19. 6 An Act making Appropriations for the Civil and Diplomatic Expenses of the Government for the Year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and for other purposes, 32nd Congress, 1st sess. , August 31, 1852, 76. 7 Report of the Secretary of the Interior, communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information as to the steps taken to establish a Lunatic Asylum in the District of Columbia, 32nd Congress, 2nd sess., S. doc. 11, December 30, 1852, 13. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid., 2. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid., 2-3. 12 Ibid., 5. 13 [Site Plan for St. Elizabeths Hospital], circa 1856, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, no. 4, National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. The National Archives dates this plan as circa 1860. However, it appears to be a manuscript drawing of the illustration that accompanied Report of Superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 1st session, 34th Congress, 1856. 14 S. doc. 11, 6-7. 15 Ibid., 3-4. 16 Devrouax & Purnell, et al., 2:8. 17 Annual Report, October 1, 1854, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 1, 33rd Congress, 2nd session, 622. From this date until 1869, the annual reports were dated either in October or November of the fiscal year. It appears that work described in the reports was accomplished until the date of the report, rather than the fiscal year, which ended on June 30. The hospital’s annual report was issued in different formats and under different titles over the course of the institution’s history. They were published separately, as part of the Secretary of the Interior’s annual report, and as documents submitted to Congress. For simplicity’s sake, all such reports will be titled Annual Report in this document. Annual reports reviewed for this chronology that were published separately are identified as published by the Government Printing Office. Those reports were reviewed at the Library of Congress. Editions of the annual reports reviewed that were congressional documents are identified by their Senate or House document number, Congress, session, and date. They were reviewed at the National Archives Congressional Records Divisions in Washington, D.C. 18 Annual Report, October 1, 1854, 624. 19 Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting Propositions relating to the organization of the hospital for the insane of the army and navy, 33d Congress, 2nd sess., H. doc. no. 24, December 30, 1854, 1-4. 20 Annual Report, October 1, 1855, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 1st session, 34th Congress, 1856, 637. 21 An Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy, and of the District of Columbia, in the said District, 33rd Congress, 2nd sess., March 3, 1855, 682. 22 Annual Report, October 1, 1855, 632. 23 Ibid., 632. 24 Annual Report, October 31, 1856, Senate Ex. Doc. No. 5, 34th Congress, 3rd session, December 2, 1856, 880-882. 25 Annual Report, October 1, 1860, Senate Ex Doc. 1, 36th Congress, 2nd session, December 4, 1860, 549. 26 Annual Report, October 31, 1856, 880-882. 27 [Site Plan for St. Elizabeths Hospital], circa 1856. 28 Paul E. Sluby, Sr., “Evolution of the Cemeteries for St. Elizabeths Hospital,” Research Tools for St. Elizabeths Hospital, prepared by Zimmerman Associates for the General Services Administration, 2005, 4:8.


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29 An Act supplementary to “An Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy, and of the District of Columbia, in the said District,” approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, 34th Congress 3rd sess., February 7, 1857, 157-158. 30 Annual Report, October 1, 1857, Senate Ex Doc. 2, 35th Congress, 1st session, December 8, 1857, 740. 31 Ibid., 741. 32 Ibid. 33 Annual Report, October 1, 1858, Senate Ex Doc. 2, 35th Congress, 2nd t session, December 6, 1858, 735-736. 34 Annual Report, October 1, 1858, 732-734. 35 Ibid., 733. 36 Ibid., 740-741. 37 Annual Report, October 1, 1860, 548. 38 Annual Report, October 1, 1859, Senate Ex Doc. 2, 36th Congress, 1st session, December 27, 1859, 889. 39 Ibid., 891. 40 An Act to Amend an Act entitled an “Act to organize an Institution for the Insane of the Army and Navy, and of the District of Columbia in the said District,” 36th Congress, 1st sess., June 1, 1860. 41 Annual Report, October 1, 1860, 530. 42 Ibid., 542. 43 Ibid., 544. 44 “Walks about the Hospital Grounds I,” Sun Dial, circa December 1928, 2, collection of Suryabala Kanouwha. 45 Ibid., 548. 46 “Government Hospital for the Insane: Ground Plan,” Library of Congress, Geography & Maps Room, Washington, D.C. 47 Annual Report, October 1, 1861, Senate Ex Doc. 1, 37th Congress, 2nd session, December 3, 1861, 886. 48 Ibid. 49 Annual Report, October 1, 1864, House Ex Doc. 1, 38th Congress, 2nd session, 1864, 724. 50 Ibid., 898. 51 Annual Report, October 31, 1868, House Ex Doc. 1, 40th Congress, 3rd session, 1868, 868. 52 Annual Report, October 1, 1862, 625-626. 53 Annual Report, October 1 1862, 626. 54 Annual, October 1, 1863, House Ex Doc. 1, 38th Congress, 1st session, 1863, 699. 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid., 701. 57 Ibid., 702. 58 Sluby, Sr., 4:8. 59 Annual Report, October 1, 1864, 724. 60 Ibid., 725. 61 Ibid., 725-726. 62 Annual Report, November 1, 1865, House Ex Doc. 1, 39th Congress, 1st session, 1865, 828. 63 Ibid., 830. 64 An Act to extend to certain Persons the Privilege of Admission, in certain cases, to the United States Government Asylum for the Insane, 39th Cong., 1st sess., July 13, 1866, 93-94. 65 Annual Report, October 1, 1866, 16-17. 66 Ibid., 17. 67 Ibid. 68 Annual Report, October 1, 1867, House Ex Doc. 1, 40th Congress, 1st session, 1867, 498-499. 69 Ibid., 500. 70 Ibid. 71 Ibid. 72 Annual Report, October 31, 1868, 863-864. 73 “Plan of Cemetery at the U.S. Hospital for the Insane,” National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic & Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, no. 11, 1868. 74 Annual Report, October 31, 1868, 865.


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75 Ibid., 867. 76 Ibid., 868. 77 Annual Report, 1869, House Ex Doc. 1, part 3, 41st Congress, 2nd session, 1869, 1111. 78 Ibid., 1107-1108. 79 Ibid., 1113. 80 Annual Report, 1886-87, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,21-22. 81 See “Topographical map of the site and lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane,” October 1873, Record Group 418 no. 12; “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home Tract, Plate 1,” April 1899, Record Group 418, no. 16; Nautical Chart 3159 (plate 2443), Record Group 23, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1895; National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic & Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. The roads are also depicted in illustrations accompanying the 1895 and 1898 annual reports. 82 Ibid., 1109. 83 Annual Report, 1870, House Ex Doc. 1, part 4, 41st Congress, 3rd session, 1870, 907. 84 It appears that work described by the annual report was completed during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1870. In previous annual reports, data on patients and purchases fell within the fiscal year boundaries, while information on construction, which was delivered in an addendum from the superintendent, covered work done through the day of the report itself. The 1870 annual report, for the first time, includes no separate report from the superintendent, and the only dates used to describe the period of time covered are those of the fiscal year, July 1 to June 30. 85 Ibid., 905. 86 Annual Report, 1869, 1112. 87 Annual Report, 1870, 905. 88 Annual Report, 1871, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 11. 89 Ibid., 14-15. 90 Ibid., 20. 91 Annual Report, 1872, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 13. 92 Annual Report, 1873, House Ex Doc. 1, 43rd Congress, part 5, 1st session, 1873, 803-804. 93 Ibid., 804. 94 Ibid., 805. 95 Annual Report, 1871, 19. 96 Annual Report, 1873, 811. 97 “Topographical map of the site and lands of the Government Hospital for the Insane,” Record Group 418 no. 12, October 1873, National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic & Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. 98 Sluby, Sr., 4:8. 99 Ibid. 100 An act to provide for the care and custody of persons convicted in the courts of the United States who have or may become insane while imprisoned, 43rd Congress, 1st session, June 23, 1874, 251. 101 Annual Report, 1874, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 12-13. 102 Ibid., 17. 103 Annual Report, 1872, 17. 104 Annual Report, 1874, 17. 105 Ibid., 17-18. 106 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:56. 107 Annual Report, 1875, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 18. 108 “Topographical plan of the grounds,” 1860, Library of Congress, Geography & Maps Room, Washington, D.C. 109 Annual Report, 1872, 18. 110 “Plat showing location and number of buildings on home tract,” Annual Report, 1895, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, n.p. 111 Annual Report, 1875, 18. 112 Ibid., 18-19. 113 Ibid., 21-25; Devrouax & Purnell, 2:20-21. 114 Annual Report, 1876, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 14.


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115 Ibid., 19-20. 116 Ibid., 20. 117 Annual Report, 1869, 1112. 118 Annual Report, 1873, 804. 119 Annual Report, 1876, 20. 120 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:20. 121 Annual Report, 1879-80, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880, 19. 122 Annual Report, 1877-78, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1878, 15-16. 123 Ibid., 19. 124 Annual Report, 1878-79, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1879, 12-14; “Government Hospital for the Insane Ground Plan, 1883,” Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, no. 15, National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. The 1883 ground plan uses a dotted line to indicate a rectangular structure connected to the boiler house. The annual report states that “a second reservoir will be built in the rear of the hospital building.” The structure connected to the boiler house in the 1883 drawing may, then, represent this second reservoir. 125 “Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home Tract,” Annual Report, 1897-98, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1898. 126 Annual Report, 1878-79, 12-13; Devrouax & Purnell, 57-58. 127 Annual Report, 1879-80, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880, 15. 128 Ibid., 16-17. 129 Ibid., 19. 130 Ibid. 131 Annual Report, 1880-81, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 16. 132 Ibid., 20. 133 Annual Report, 1881-82, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 15. 134 Ibid., 18-19. 135 Ibid., 19. 136 Annual Report, 1882-83, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 16. 137 Ibid., 17. 138 Ibid. 139 Ibid., 22. 140 William Tindall, “The Origin of the Parking System of this City,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 4, 1901, 81. 141 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing number and location of buildings,” Annual Report, 1894-95, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, n.p. 142 Annual Report, 1882-83, 17-18. 143 Ibid., 23. 144 Annual Report, 1883-84, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 15-16. 145 Ibid., 19-20. 146 Devrouax & Purnell, 65; Surya Kanhouwa and Kenneth Gorelick, “A Century of Pathology at Saint Elizabeths Hospital,” Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 121, January 1997, 84. 147 Annual Report, 1884-85, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 17. 148 Ibid., 19. 149 Annual Report, 1885-86, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 17. 150 Ibid., 20. 151 Mary-Jane M. Dowd, Records of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, Record Group 42, Inventory no. 16, Washington, D.C., National Archives and Records Administration, 1992, 37-39. 152 Annual Report, 1886-87, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 17; Devrouax & Purnell, 53. 153 Annual Report, 1887-88, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 17. 154 Annual Report, 1889-90, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 18. 155 Ibid., 18. 156 Annual Report, 1888-89, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 16. 157 Annual Report, 1889-90, 15.


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158 Annual Report, 1890-91, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 16. 159 Annual Report, 1889-90, 16, 18. 160 Annual Report, 1890-91, 15. 161 Ibid., 20-21, Devrouax & Purnell, 60. 162 Annual Report, 1890-91, 16. 163 Annual Report, 1893-94, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 15. 164 Annual Report, 1892-93, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 15. 165 Annual Report, 1891-92, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 19. 166 Devrouax & Purnell, 67. 167 Annual Report, 1892-93, 17. 168 Annual Report, 1891-92, 16. 169 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing number and location of buildings on Home Tract,” Annual Report, 1894-95, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, n.p. 170 Annual Report, 1892-93, 17. 171 Annual Report, 1891-92, 18. 172 Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital, H. doc. No. 605, 69th Congress., 2nd sess., December 26, 1927, 46. 173 Annual Report, 1893-94, 17-18. 174 Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital., December 26, 1927, 107. 175 Annual Report, 1894-95, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 16. 176 Ibid. 177 U.S. Congress. House of Representatives. Hearings before the Special Committee appointed by the Speaker under a resolution of the House of Representatives, Fifty-ninth Congress, to make a full and complete investigation of the management of the Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907, 2:1497. 178 Ibid., 17. 179 Annual Report, 1896-97, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 20-21. 180 Ibid., 22. 181 Annual Report, 1897-98, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 18. 182 Hearings before the Special Committee appointed by the Speaker under a resolution of the House of Representatives, 1907, 2:1497. 183 Ibid., 28. 184 Annual Report, 1894-95, 19. 185 Annual Report, 1897-98, 25. 186 Ibid. 187 Ibid., 27. 188 Annual Report, 1898-99, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 25. 189 Ibid., 25-26. 190 Ibid., 15. 191 Ibid., 18. 192 Annual Report, 1897-98, 27; Devrouax & Purnell, 58. 193 Annual Report, 1898-99, 25. Although sometimes called the “new laundry” in the annual reports, the plat accompanying this annual report clearly shows that the construction consisted of an addition to the southeast corner of the laundry and machine shop. 194 Ibid., 19. 195 “Funeral Plans Made,” Washington Post, June 29, 1928, 12. 196 Annual Report, 1899-1900, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1900, 5-6. 197 Ibid., 6. 198 “Government Hospital for the Insane, Plat showing location and number of buildings on Home Tract, Plate 1,” April 1899. 199 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., “South east from near the water tower to the new entrance,” December 26, 1900, Olmsted Archives, photograph no. 2825-6, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts. 200 Annual Report, 1899-1900, 7-9; Purnell & Devrouax, 2:27.


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201 Ibid., 11. 202 Ibid., 13-14. 203 Alonzo B. Richardson to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., December 18, 1900, Records of the Olmsted Associates, series B, Job Files, job no. 2825, reel 135, frame 633, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington, D.C. 204 “Government Hospital for the Insane, F. L. Olmsted, Jr., December 26, 1900” [notes], Records of the Olmsted Associates, series B, Job Files, job no. 2825, reel 135, frame 634. 205 Olmsted Brothers to Dr. A. B. Richardson, January 15, 1901, 1-4, Records of the Olmsted Associates, series B, Job Files, job no. 2825, reel 135. 206 Olmsted Brothers, “Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D.C.,”1901, Olmsted Archives, job 2825, no. 2, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts. 207 Olmsted Brothers to Dr. A. B. Richardson, January 15, 1901, 4-8. 208 Ibid., 10. 209 Annual Report, 1900-1901, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1901, 9. 210 Ibid., 10. Although called an addition, this building may have been separate from the original pumping station. The 1908 annual report states that the old pump house was torn down. 211 Ibid., 11. The Congressional Report, Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital (December 26, 1927, 107), states that the tower stood 105 feet high. It may be that the trestle was 85 feet high while the top of the tank was 105 feet off the ground. 212 James Berral, “Government Hospital for the Insane,” 1904, Annual Report, 1903-04, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. 213 Annual Report, 1900-1901, 11. 214 Ibid. 215 Ibid. 216 Ibid. 217 Ibid., 12. 218 Ibid., 13. 219 Ibid., 14-15. 220 Annual Report, 1901-1902, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1902, 4. 221 Ibid. 222 Ibid. 223 “Funeral Plans Made,” Washington Post, June 29, 1903, 12. 224 Lawrence C. Moore, “William Alanson White – A Biography,” in William Alanson White: The Washington Years, 1903-1937, Arcangelo R. T. D’Amore, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Department of Health Education and Welfare, 1976), 14. 225 Annual Report, 1903-04, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904, 3; Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital., December 26, 1927, 106. 226 Ibid., 4. 227 Ibid. 228 Ibid., 7. 229 See, for instance, image no. DC0137SE0P011, 1910 and image no. DC1472SE0PT019, 1957, General Services Administration. Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database. Compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 230 Ibid., 5. 231 Ibid., 7; Annual Report, 1912-13, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913, 584. 232 Annual Report, 1901-02, 5. 233 Annual Report, 1903-04, 6. 234 Ibid. 235 Annual Report, 1904-05, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, 5. 236 Ibid., 8. 237 Ibid. 238 Ibid. 239 Ibid., 8-9. 240 “St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C., Key Plan of Buildings” [west of Nichols Avenue], December 14, 1938, Record Group 418, no. 22, National Archives; Public Buildings Service, “Site Plan, St. Elizabeths Hospital,


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Washington, D.C.,” February 1945, A Report on the Treatment, Administration, and Service Facilities of St. Elizabeths Hospital, 1945, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library; Devrouax & Purnell, 2:42. Dates for these buildings were taken from the key included in the Public Buildings Service Survey, which uses the same building numbers as the 1938 site plan. 241 Annual Report, 1903-04, 10. 242 Annual Report, 1905-06, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906, 9. 243 Ibid. 244 Ibid., 10. 245 Ibid., 9. 246 Ibid., 11. 247 Hearings before the Special Committee appointed by the Speaker under a resolution of the House of Representatives, Fifty-ninth Congress, to make a full and complete investigation of the management of the Government Hospital for the Insane (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907), 2:1184-1185. 248 Ibid., 2:1227. 249 Ibid., 2:1497. 250 Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., “From near water tower toward Chronic Male wards. 2d. Panorama #2,” December 26, 1900, Olmsted Archives, photograph no. 2825-11, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts. 251 House Report no. 7644, part I. Report of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Government Hospital for the Insane with Hearings and Digest of the Testimony. 59th Congress, 2nd sess., 1907, xviii. 252 Ibid., 2:1185. 253 Annual Report, 1906-07, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907, 8. 254 Ibid., 8-10. 255 Ibid., 12. 256 Annual Report, 1907-08, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1908, 298. 257 Ibid., 299-300. 258 Ibid., 301. 259 Annual Report, 1908-09, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909, 296. 260 Ibid. 261 Annual Report, 1909-10, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910, 322. 262 Ibid., 322-323. 263 William A. White, “The New Government Hospital for the Insane,” American Journal of Insanity 66:4, April 1910, 523-524. 264 Annual Report, 1910-11, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911, 463. 265 Ibid., 462. 266 Ibid., 449. 267 Annual Report, 1913-14, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914, 573. 268 “Walks about the Grounds I,” Sun Dial, circa December 1928, 3. 269 Ibid., 449-450. 270 Ibid., 450. 271 Hearings before the Committee on Rules of the House of Representatives on House Resolution 12: To Investigate the Government Hospital for the Insane in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911, 49. 272 U.S. Department of the Interior, Report of the Committee to Consider the Organization and Needs of the Government Hospital for the Insane, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911, 26. 273 Annual Report, 1911-12, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1912, 500. 274 Ibid. 275 Ibid., 503. 276 Annual Report, 1912-13, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913, 579-581. 277 Ibid., 581-584; Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital., December 26, 1927, 107. 278 Ibid., 585. 279 Annual Report, 1913-14, 569.


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280 “St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C., Key Plan of Buildings” [west of Nichols Avenue], December 14, 1938, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, no. 22, National Archives and Records Administration, Cartographic and Architectural Drawings Division, College Park, Maryland. 281 Annual Report, 1913-14, 570. 282 Ibid., 572. 283 Ibid., 588. 284 Annual Report, 1914-15, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1915, 15. 285 Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital, December 26, 1927, 65. 286 Ibid., 20. 287 Ibid., 23. 288 Ibid., 24. 289 Ibid., 25. 290 Annual Report, 1915-16, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1916, 15. 291 Ibid., 16-17. 292 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:78. 293 64 Stat. 309. 294 Annual Report, 1916-17, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1917, 12-14. 295 Ibid., 15. 296 Ibid., 21-22. 297 Ibid., 23. 298 Annual Report, 1917-18, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1918, 10. 299 Ibid., 11. 300 Ibid., 12. 301 Annual Report, 1918-19, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919, 10-11. 302 Ibid., 14. 303 Ibid. 304 Ibid., 18. 305 Annual Report, 1919-20, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920, 23. 306 Ibid., 13. 307 Ibid. 308 Ibid., 21. 309 Ibid., 32. 310 Ibid., 33. 311 Annual Report, 1920-21, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921, 13. 312 Alvah Godding to M. Sanger, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent, July 10, 1922, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 1. 313 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:37. 314 Annual Report, 1921-22, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1922, 2. 315 Ibid., 3. 316 Godding to Sanger, July 10, 1922. 317 Annual Report, 1921-22, 3. 318 Annual Report, 1922-23, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923, 3. 319 Ibid. 320 Annual Report, 1923-24, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924, 7. 321 Ibid. 322 Ibid. 323 Ibid. 324 Godding to Sanger, July 12, 1924, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 2, 1-2. 325 Annual Report, 1924-25, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1925, 6-7. 326 Ibid., 7.


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327 Godding to Sanger. July 10, 1925, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 2, 1. 328 C. B. Snyder to Sanger, July 8, 1925, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 2, 1-5. 329 Ibid., 1-4. 330 Godding to Sanger. July 10, 1925, 1. 331 Annual Report, 1924-25, 9-10. 332 Annual Report, 1925-26, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926, 7. 333 Ibid., 10. 334 Annual Report, 1926-27, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927, 3. 335 Snyder to William A. White, July 8, 1927, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 2. 336 Annual Report, 1926-27, 3. 337 Snyder to William A. White, July 8, 1927, 1-2. 338 Annual Report, 1926-27, 6. 339 Ibid., 5. 340 Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital., December 26, 1927, 43. 341 Devrouax & Purnell, Appendix 3, form 38. 342 Investigation of St. Elizabeths Hospital., December 26, 1927, 110-113; “St. Elizabeths Hospital Inventory,” June 30, 1927, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 2. 343 Ibid., 111-113. 344 Annual Report, 1927-28, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1928, 2. 345 Ibid., 3. 346 Ibid., 4. 347 “Dr. W.A. White Paid Honors for Services, Washington Post, October 4, 1928, 20. 348 “Walks about the Hospital Grounds I,” Sun Dial, circa December 1928, 2. 349 Annual Report, 1928-29, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1929, 4. 350 Ibid., 5. 351 Annual Report, 1929-30, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1930, 5. 352 Annual Report, 1930-31, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931, 3. 353 Ibid. 354 Ibid., 4. 355 Annual Report, 1931-32, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932, 3. 356 Ibid., 5-7. 357 Ibid., 6. 358 Annual Report, 1933-34, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1934, 386. 359 Ibid., 387. 360 Annual Report, 1934-35, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1935, 386-387, 400. 361 Annual Report, 1935-36, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1936, 392. 362 Ibid., 394-395. 363 Ibid., 395-396. 364 “Dr. White, St. Elizabeth Chief, Dead,” Washington Post, March 8, 1937, 1. 365 Annual Report, 1936-37, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1937, 378. 366 “Dr. Overholser Is Sworn In at St. Elizabeths,” Washington Post, October 7, 1937, 26. 367 Annual Report, 1937-38, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938, 374. 368 Ibid., 380. 369 Ibid. 370 Ibid., 382. 371 Ibid., 382-383. 372 Annual Report, 1938-39, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939, 410-411. 373 “Historical Note,” Annual Report, 1945-46, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946, 396. 374 Annual Report, 1940-41, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1941, 11. 375 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:81.


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376 C. B. Snyder to Winfred Overholser. July 11, 1944, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 4, 1. 377 Ibid., 2. 378 Wm. H. Mistr to Overholser, July 16, 1945, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 5, 1. 379 Image no. DC1449SE0P011, 1944, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 380 Ibid. 381 Ibid., 2. 382 Noel Stock, The Life of Ezra Pound, New York: Pantheon Books, 1970, 419. 383 Winfred Overholser, “An Historical Sketch of Saint Elizabeths Hospital,” Centennial Papers: Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1855-1955, Washington, D.C.: Centennial Commission, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, 1956, 20-21. 384 Annual Report, 1945-46, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946, 417. 385 Snyder to Winfred Overholser, Superintendent, July 15, 1946, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 4, 1. 386 Mistr to Overholser, July 20, 1946, NARA, Record Group 418, Records of St. Elizabeths Hospital, entry 20, box 5, 1-2. 387 Image no. DC1472SE0132, 1947, General Services Administration. Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database. Compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 388 Air Photographics, Inc., photo no. 1948 DC D396, Spring 1948, included in Heritage Landscapes, St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Landscape Assessment Plan, prepared for the General Services Administration, August 31, 2005, 1948-AP. 389 Stock, 421; E. Fuller Torrey, The Roots of Treason: Ezra Pound and the Secret of St. Elizabeths, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984, 220-237. 390 Annual Report, 1946-47, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1947, 486-487. 391 Annual Report, 1946-47, 487. 392 Ibid., 488. 393 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:81. 394 Annual Report, 1947-48, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1948, 677-678. 395 Annual Report, 1948-49, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1949, 13. 396 Annual Report, 1950-51, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1951, 14. 397 Ibid., 14-15; Annual Report, 1951-52, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1952, 15. 398 Annual Report, 1951-52, 15, 399 Ibid. 400 See, for instance, image no. DC1472SE0037, 1947, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, cCompiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 401 Robert B. Matchette, compiler, Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995, 235-1. 402 Annual Report, 1953-54, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954, 256. 403 Public Buildings Service, “Site Survey: St. Elizabeths Hospital,” Report on the Treatment, Administration and Service Facilities of St. Elizabeths Hospital, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library; Devrouax & Purnell, 2:71.. 404 Annual Report, 1953-54, 256, 405 Ibid. 406 Annual Report, 1955-56, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1956, 1. 407 Annual Report, 1956-57, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957, 6. 408 Stock, 447. 409 Annual Report, 1959-60, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1960, 2. 410 Air Photographics, Inc., photo no. V615-197(P), March 1961, included in Heritage Landscapes, St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Landscape Assessment Plan, prepared for the General Services Administration, August 31, 2005, 1961-AP. 411 Annual Report, 1961-62, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1962, 10. 412 Ibid. 413 Annual Report, 1962-63, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963, 13.


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414 For parking areas, see image nos. DC0066SE0127 and DC1472SE0P008, 1963. For lampposts and asphalt roads, see DC0148SE0P001 and DC0066SE0P034, 1963, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, cCompiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 415 Annual Report, 1963-64, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1964, 15. 416 “Dr. Overholser Dies,” Washington Post, October 7, 1964, A1. 417 Image no. DC0066SE0P078, February 11, 1965, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 418 Annual Report, 1964-65, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1965, 17. 419 Devrouax & Purnell, 2:82; Air Photographics, Inc., photo no. V615-197(P), February 1966, included in Heritage Landscapes, St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Landscape Assessment Plan, prepared for the General Services Administration, August 31, 2005, 1966-AP. 420 Air Photographics, Inc., photo no. V615-197(P), February 1966; image no. DC1472SE0P110, January 21, 1966, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 421 Annual Report, 1967-68, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1965, 264. 422 Image nos. DC0129SE0P004 and DC0101SE0P017, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 423 “Historical Highlights,” Department of Health and Human Services web page, http://www.hhs.gov/about/hhshist.html. 424 Image no. DC1335SE0P010, 1981, General Services Administration, Saint Elizabeths Hospital Database, compiled by Zimmerman Associates, Inc., 2005. 425 General Services Administration, “St. Elizabeths West Campus Cultural Resources Technical Report,” Environmental Impact Statement, preliminary draft, December 2006, 5. 426 Site Plan, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, [Washington, D.C.?: s.n., 1985], Geography & Map Reading Room, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 427 “Existing Hospital Reservation,” figure 7, St. Elizabeths Hospital Master Plan, 1977, St. Elizabeths Health Sciences Library. 428 General Services Administration, “St. Elizabeths West Campus Cultural Resources Technical Report,” 5. 429 Devroaux & Purnell, 1:4. 430 General Services Administration, “St. Elizabeths West Campus Cultural Resources Technical Report,” 6. 431 Ibid.


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Figure AppB.1: The Locational Grid for landscape features and events referenced in the chronology for St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus Cultural Landscape Report. (CL-HL-LocationGrid-2007.jpg)


Appendix C: Historic Documents Composite Spreadsheet

AppC.1


A. INTRODUCTION TO HISTORIC DOCUMENTS COMPOSITE SPREADSHEET

To form a basis for the development of the cultural landscape history chronology and illustrated history narrative, the historians reviewed extensive written and graphic materials and conducted key new research related to the history and evolution of the cultural landscape of St. Elizabeths west campus. (This research is summarized in the “Methodology” section of Chapter I and the Bibliography of the CLR.) Relevant documents have been compiled and organized in a finding aid in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Each item in the spreadsheet has been assigned an original material code to indicate its format, e.g., photograph, book, drawing or sketch, map or plan. The elements of the composite spreadsheet include information such as the date of the item, author, title, caption, archival location, and notes on relevance to the CLR. This finding aid and its accompanying key are designed to serve as a highly useful reference tool for the compiled information, capturing the historic documentation in an organized manner and providing an accessible means to browse and search the considerable amount of research materials gathered during the preparation of the cultural landscape report. Additionally, the data as presented can be readily manipulated to facilitate variable uses.

ST. ELIZABETHS WEST CAMPUS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Appendix C: Historic Documents Composite Spreadsheet

AppC.2
