Brattleboro Retreat facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Brattleboro Retreat
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entrance to the main building (2012)
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 Location in Vermont
Location in the United States
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| Location | Linden Street and Upper Dummerston Road Brattleboro, Vermont, U.S. |
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| Area | 620 acres (250 ha) |
| Built | 1834 |
| NRHP reference No. | 84003478 |
| Added to NRHP | April 12, 1984 |
The Brattleboro Retreat is a special hospital that helps people with their minds and feelings. It is a private, non-profit place. They offer different ways to help people, whether they stay at the hospital, visit for part of the day, or come for appointments. They help children, teenagers, and adults.
The Retreat is located just north of downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, in the United States. It sits on about 300 acres of land near the West River. It was started in 1834. The Retreat was the first place in Vermont to care for people with mental health needs. It was also one of the first ten private mental health hospitals in the United States. Many people see it as a pioneer in how mental health care is given.
The Retreat is part of a group called Ivy League Hospitals. Over 600 acres of the campus, including most of its buildings, were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. This means they are important historical sites.
How the Retreat Started
The Brattleboro Retreat began in 1834. It was first called the Vermont Asylum for the Insane. A woman named Anna Hunt Marsh left $10,000 in her will to start a hospital. This hospital was meant to help people with mental health issues. It was designed to be independent and last forever. Later, in the late 1800s, its name changed to Brattleboro Retreat. This was to avoid confusion with another state-run hospital.
The idea for the Retreat came from the York Retreat in England. It offered a kinder and safer way to help people with mental health problems. Before this, treatment could be harsh or even dangerous. The main idea was "moral treatment". This idea came from a group called Quakers in the late 1700s. It means treating mental health problems as illnesses, not as bad character or sins. This kind and respectful approach is still important at the Retreat today.
For many years, in the 1800s and 1900s, treatment focused on fresh air and physical activity. Patients also learned new things and did helpful work on the farm or in the kitchen. The staff were always supportive. Some ideas used at the Retreat came from the Quakers and a doctor named Benjamin Rush. The first leader, William Rockwell, helped put these ideas into practice. He followed the ideas of his teacher, Eli Todd. The story of Hiram Harwood, an early patient, shows how Rockwell's methods worked.
Ways They Help People
The Brattleboro Retreat has always been known for its "moral treatment" approach. They also use new and advanced ways to help people. The hospital was the first mental health hospital in the U.S. to have many things. These include a newspaper made by patients, a bowling alley, a chapel, a theater, and a gym. They also had recreation fields, a patient singing group, and book clubs. They were the first to have an outing club, a working dairy farm, and patient-run businesses. They even had the first swimming pool at a U.S. mental health hospital.
Patients often went on outings, and people from the community would join them for events. The hospital has some secure areas, but it is not separated from the community by fences. Many of the Brattleboro Retreat's ways of caring and building design have been copied by hospitals worldwide.
The Retreat was careful when using newer treatments like electroconvulsive therapy ("ECT"). They used it in a very limited way. Today, the Retreat's ECT clinic is closed. Most patients had more freedom here than at other hospitals. They had bedrooms with windows instead of small cells. Because new buildings were built quickly, patients had large private rooms. This was true even when other hospitals became too crowded. Many historians believe the Brattleboro Retreat has a good history without problems.
However, this changed for some patients when state hospitals began to be built. Many long-term patients did not want to leave their home at the Retreat. They tried to avoid being moved to state facilities. Sadly, some were moved against their wishes. Also, new medicines helped people with mood problems. This meant fewer patients needed to stay at the hospital. The hospital then used this extra space for new programs. These include special schools and outpatient services. Recent new programs include a unit for LGBT individuals and a program for uniformed service workers. This includes police, firefighters, and military members.
The hospital does not have the bad reputation that some mental health places have. This is because it has always focused on treating each patient as an individual. A full team of doctors, psychologists, nurses, social workers, and other medical staff continue this tradition of good patient care.
The Campus
Until recently, the president of the Brattleboro Retreat was a doctor. This doctor lived in the main building with their family. The last people to live in the executive apartment were Dr. and Mrs. Beech.
A special clock tower with four faces sits on top of Lawton Hall. This clock tower lights up from behind. It was meant to help sleepless patients feel the time passing and feel more comfortable. You can see the clock from anywhere on the campus. The campus has 58 buildings and feels like a college. It is on a grassy plain between a meadow that floods sometimes and downtown Brattleboro. The hospital allowed a company to flood the Retreat Meadows. In return, the area could be used for ice fishing, boating, and other fun activities.
The hospital owns a lot of land in the area. This includes the site of the castle-like Retreat Tower. Patients and staff built this tower in the late 1800s. The Retreat Dairy Farm is now separate from the hospital. But it is still well-kept and working. Patients no longer work at the bakery or carpentry shops. Programs have changed for the people they help today. The main buildings where patients get care are named after past doctors, like Tyler and Osgood.
The indoor swimming pool in Lawton Hall was the first at any hospital in the world. It closed many decades ago after a polio outbreak outside Vermont. It has not reopened. Now, there is a new area with tennis courts and an outdoor pool. These give patients places for outdoor activities.
The land owned by the hospital is open to everyone. People can hike or cross-country ski there. Many ice fishing huts appear each winter on the frozen Retreat Meadows. Sometimes, you can also see people ice skating.
See also
