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The History of Bloomingdale Insane Asylum In New York

The New York Hospital was founded in 1776. It became the third oldest hospital in the colonies established to treat wounded soldiers of the Colonial Army. By 1802 a committee was formed to consider building an addition to the hospital for “lunatics”, (the mentally ill). The idea of building the addition was tabled, and it was decided that a separate building would be constructed to house the people. The committee members were: Thomas Eddy, John R. Murray, John Aspinwall, Thomas Buckley, Cadwallader Colden, and Peter A. Jay. The land was purchased from Gerald De Peyster on what is now the Columbia University. The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum officially opened on June 1st,1821. By 1824 the facility had 120 beds.

     In 1829 a building was erected northwest of the main building which housed noisy and violent men. Another building was erected in 1837 where noisy and violent women were housed. By 1834 the total patient population had grown to 134. Thirty-eight acres of the ground was sold to Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum in 1834. “Pauper patients”, who lived in Bloomingdale were moved to the new lunatic asylum that was opened by the city of New York on Blackwell Island in 1939. Today that is known as Roosevelt Island.

     Dorothea Dix visited Bloomingdale in 1851. She raised $52,000 to build two additions to the facilities that separately housed noisy and violent men in one building, and noisy and violent women in the other building. By 1850’s “moral treatment”, was no longer the practiced ideology of the staff. Around that time, a person could be put in the asylum against his or her will. Carolina Underhill was “forcibly incarcerated” by her sister and nephew. Her relatives had conspired to evict her from her home which her father left her. Commodore Richard W. Meade, the brother of Gettysburg hero General George Meade, was also institutionalized against his will because he didn’t consent to his daughter’s suitor’s proposal.

     John Townsend, who was a lawyer, was interviewed by the New York Tribune. He informed the public that the residents of the asylum were being treated cruelly. Some died as a result of their being abused. One of the head doctors declared that critics should stop by the asylum and witness the abuse for themselves. Julies Chambers, reporter, signed himself into the asylum as a patient on August 12, 1872. After his stay he published articles called, “Among the Maniacs”. “A night of horror, among raving patients-sleep disturbed by agonized cries of dangerous idiots-close cells, uncomfortable beds and chairs, scanty and foul food, filthy baths, and rude and vulgar attendants-no amusements, games, or reading matter-imbecile boys exposed naked to the sun and venerable blind men beaten by enraged keepers.” Chambers reported that once he was moved to the asylum’s main building his living conditions and the quality of the attendants improved. After the public outcry, the head doctor of Bloomingdale retired in 1877.

In the late 1860’s the institution’s trustees purchased around 300 acres of land in White Plains to move the asylum there. In 1889, the asylum began selling off property to pay for their big move. The New York Times announced that Columbia college students would move to Morning Heights when the authorities of the University took possession of the property. It was reported that the Teachers College took one of the asylum buildings as a dorm. Since then, Columbia University has made the property on Bloomingdale its home in the neighborhood.

Signed: Renee D. Warring

RESOURCES:

https://bloomingdalehistory.com/2016/01/10/the-bloomingdale-insane-asylum/

https://ilovetheupperwestside.com/bloomingdale-insane-asylum/