Let's continue our drive around Norwich in our '57 Chrysler as we tour the hospital.
10) Many of Norwich's buildings were named after famous psychiatrists of the late 19th and early 20th century. So, here is Kirkbride.
11) And here is Dix. This building, along with Cutter and Butler, were referred to by a former nurse as a snake pit. She said there were mass showers in the basement and they would line the patients up and hose them down. When the newer buildings were constructed around the time these pictures were taken (on the south side of campus), these three were closed. Only Butler, further below, remains; Dix and Cutter were torn down in the early 1960s.
12) Here is Butler. Today, firefighters use this building for training as they fill it with smoke. That's why, on some pictures I've found, the upper parts of the walls are black.
13) Lippitt is the first building on the right as you're coming down Route 12. This was the first medical-surgical building, then an alcohol treatment clinic and later a methadone clinic. Another nurse told me you could smell the treatment drug - which is on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember it for the life of me - all over.
14) Here is the first building on the left past Bryan. Now covered with overgrown trees, this is the nurse's home. My mother, an ER nurse, stayed here while she was in nursing school in the early 1960s. She said there is a tunnel that leads from this building to the main part of campus, under Route 12.
15) Like most hospitals of this age, Norwich had a working farm where patients worked and provided food for the hospital. This is one of the buildings, although it's long gone.
16) Male admissions. I forget where this was taken.
17) Female admissions.
18) Some of you have found patients' artwork. Here is what it looked like as there was a separate gallery for patients.
19) And here is the patients' library.
Hope you enjoyed this set.
