Saint John has an amazing past, and I've been placing containers near any interesting historical locations. I'm quite happy to say this series has become very popular :-) Actually, doing the research for these sites has been a very positive experience for me - having only lived in Saint John for a few years, I've been discovering all kinds of fascinating facts about the city's past.
Okay, with that said, here we go...
See "GC3HWQ3: Historic Saint John Series - County Courthouse" for the first in the series and also to find links to the other geocaches in the series.
Saint John is a city steeped in history. Commonly referred to as ‘the Loyalist City’ as well as ‘Canada’s Most Irish City,’ Saint John is Canada's oldest incorporated city (1785) and is home to many firsts for Canada. Saint John is home to this country's oldest museum and Canada's first farmers market. Saint John also established Canada's first police force. This geocache site highlights yet another first for Canada!
From the cache location, looking down the street (to the North-West) you should see a large green space. This park was once the home of a long standing fixture in the city...a fixture that stood here from 1846 until 1999! A fixture that went by the very un-Politically-Correct moniker of 'The Provincial Lunatic Asylum'.
The story of this establishment actually began in the city center. On November 14 1835, the very first such institution in Canada opened it's doors at the corner of Wentworth and Leinster streets in "uptown" Saint John. This original location was in fact the first mental health facility constructed in British North America with Dr. George Peters as its first director, serving from 1835-1848. Dr. Peters actually led the move to segregate the insane from the criminals.
Unfortunately, within a few short years, this wooden structure begin deteriorating and so a decision was made to construct a new stone facility here in the neighbouring city of Lancaster.
Ground was broken in 1846, the doors opened in 1848 with the first 90 patients moving in on December 12, 1848 with Dr. John Waddell serving as director from 1849-1875, living the entire time with his family in an apartment on the third floor. Several more buildings for the site were proposed by the commission, and by 1862 all additional buildings were built and occupied.
The late 1870s saw tremendous growth in the number of patients being admitted, leading to overcrowding and turning away of patients. It was at this time that Dr. James T. Steeves took over the position as director and served from 1875-1895. 1877 saw The Great Fire break out and would have been easily viewed from the institution's location high on the hill. Surprisingly, it seems this disaster did not have a significant effect upon the patients. During the late 1870s, the building was modernized and living conditions improved that saw rooms painted and decorated, as well as the installation of dumbwaiters, elevators, and running hot water. A central laundry service was added with steam-heated washers and dryers. An 1878 addition (the first of five) was constructed to the building for housing male patients and a workshop was opened for them in 1880. In 1881 an addition was constructed for female patients which helped to relieve overcrowding concerns. The asylum continued to fill quickly and the crowding was relieved only in 1885 when a farm annex (capable of handling an additional 150 long-term patients) was added. In order to pay for their stay, able-bodied patients were expected to work in the building's laundry, or clean various parts of the facility or possibly work on the Annex Farm, located on the Sand Cove Road in southern Lancaster.
Dr. George A Hetherington served as director from 1896-1903 and oversaw improvements to the property's exterior, including various walkways, pathways and gardens of the Asylum as part of a project to encourage patients to do more outdoor activities. He was also an advocate of hydrotherapy and led the Asylum through various implementations of this form of treatment.
Dr. James Vickers Anglin was the longest serving director of the Asylum from 1904-1934 and lived in the director's third floor apartment with his wife and five children. In his first year as director, the institution changed its name to the Provincial Hospital of Nervous Diseases. He oversaw numerous capital improvements including repainting of rooms, a new heating system, hardwood floors throughout the building's living and common areas, as well as the installation of electricity and lighting. Patient overcrowding during the 1920s, possibly as a result of New Brunswick veterans returning from World War I, led to another addition constructed in 1927-1929 which saw two new wards, a kitchen and storeroom built.
Dr. E.C. Menzies served as director from 1934-1956 and oversaw ongoing capital improvements to the wards and treatment facilities, including the construction and installation of an operating room, X-ray department and sterilizing equipment in 1936; prior to this, patients had to be transferred to the General Hospital. The hospital experienced another wave of overcrowding during the late 1940s and early 1950s as the number of patients increased dramatically following the war when soldiers were repatriated to New Brunswick. Consequently, the provincial government decided to fund the province's second psychiatric hospital, the Restigouche Hospital which opened its doors in 1954 in Campbellton.
In 1955, the provincial government looked into replacing the Saint John facility with a new building on the Annex Farm property but the proposed plan was cancelled in 1958 with a change in government. In December 1956, the hospital recorded the highest number of patients in its history with 1,697 having been admitted.
Dr. Allan Robertson was the director of the institution from 1973-1977 and led efforts to convince the provincial government to replace the aging facility with more modern infrastructure. This period also saw considerable debate in the government led by Premier Richard Hatfield over what to do about modernizing community care for the mentally ill.
In 1978 the Provincial Hospital was renamed and incorporated as Centracare Saint John Inc. In 1985 the New Brunswick Mental Health Commission was established as the first of several steps in modernizing and de-centralizing institutional care in the province.
In 1992, Centracare came under the administration of the Region 2 Hospital Corporation, later renamed the Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation which was the health authority charged with administering hospitals and health care facilities across southwestern New Brunswick.
In January 1996, it was decided by AHSC to change the focus of Centracare from a facility-oriented view to a program-oriented view. Linda Nice was appointed director and funding was secured from the provincial government for a replacement residential care facility while plans were made to demolish the original institution in Lancaster (now part of the city of Saint John). In April 1997 a $4.4 million (CAD) tender was issued to construct the new 50-bed psychiatric hospital in suburban South Bay. The new facility opened in the spring of 1998 and provides tertiary level psychogeriatric and psychosocial rehabilitation services and is the focal point of AHSC's mental health care that also includes psychiatric services at the Saint John Regional Hospital and through various Community Mental Health Clinics.
This massive, now 150-year old, building in Lancaster was purchased from the provincial government by J.D. Irving Limited for $1 million (CAD) in 1998. After the last 48 patients were moved to the new building. J.D. Irving began the demolition of the vacant psychiatric hospital on March 9, 1999 and the entire structure was levelled within days. The site was landscaped and the property has been turned into a privately owned but publicly accessed urban park administered by J.D. Irving Ltd. The park offers spectacular views of the Reversing Falls and the Saint John skyline.