Morning journal and courier., 1880-10-12
The States Insane Wards.

| The Additional Buildings Now Being
 Erected at MiddIetOwn-AccOmm
 tions for Two Hundred and Fifty
 More Patfents-What is Being Done in
 This Line.
 The erection of the additional buildings for the State asylum for the insane at Middle town is fast progressing. The walls ct the main building are up and being roofed, and the two wings are part way up, the soutn wing being well advanced. The new struc- ture will largely increase the capacity Of the asylum It will accommodate 250 patients. | There are now over 100 patients requiring 1 the care of the institution who are confined 1 in almshouses and privately. The buildings will, we learn from Dr. ]Shew, be ready by I next May. The last Legislature, it will be remembered, appropriated $13O,OOO for the erection of the additional buildings, increased l accommodations being imperatively demand | ed and the State nobly responding. The commissioners having charge of the work of the erection of the buildings are Dr. Storrs, a well known prominent physician of Hart ford; O. G. R. Vinal, an attorney of Middle town, and William J. Atwater, of this city. They are twice week in attendance at the buildings, discharging the inn portant duties committed to their care The new buildings stand on the commanding eminence overlooking the city of Middletown, about one hundred and fifty feet south of the noble main buildings of the asylum, and though not so imposing as the massive stone structures of the main asylum, will be a credit to Connecticut. They will also be an additional ornament to Middletown, while for the purposes for which they are designed they will not be surpassed by any in the country, constructed upon | most approved plans and supplied with every suitable and approved arrangement. The main or center building reminds somewhat | in appearance of the Peabody Museum. It 1 is not as gigantic structure, but still is i'm posing The whole front of the new build | ings wings and all, is about 400 feet. New Haven people will judge better from the fact that their frontage is about the same in ex- | tent as the Hooker carriage establishment on 1 State street. The buildings of burned | brick obtained at klns four or five miles dis 1 tant, with stone caps and sills, with founda- 1 tions of Portland stone, and high pointed roof. The design is on the modern Gothic style The architect is Mir. Keller, of Hart ford. He designed the new Cour0nt building, recently erected in that city. There are between 400 and 800 pa- tients in the asylum, and by next May there will be about 600 under the kind, intelligent care of the institution, whose work stands approved by eminent authorities and honors the wisdom and humanity of the State
 The new buildings will have space appro- priated to the insane criminal class. One wing will be devoted to females, the other to the males, and in each the criminal class will have special accommodation. There is quite number in this class now cared for at the institution, in separate building in the
 rear of the main buildings. Each of the
 wings will be supplied with airy dormitories,
 pleasant sitting rooms and in the center
 building will be the dining room, kitchen, etc., l and it will communicate with the wings by
 corridors The boilers for the steam heat
 ing for the new building are in 8 separate 1 building in the rear, as is the case at the
 main structure They are now being put in, 1 and chimney 70 feet high has been erected
 A visit was paid the institution yesterday by
 the building commissioners and representa-
 tives of various papers in the cities of New
 Haven, Hartford and Middletown. A pleas ant though sad sight was large congrega-
 tion of patients whose insanity is of mild
 type, taking it easy and quietly out on the green sward to the left of the institution
 and entertained by music from the Asylum
 band, composed mainly of patients. There were a hundred or a hundred and fifty pa tients thus assembled, taking their daily
 airing and recreation. The band was playing
 quite sweetly well known popular pathetic
 air. The patients were lying off some at full
 length on the grass, others under the covered
 enclosure sitting down, some reading, some
 musing. Andersen was among the number.
 Learning that parties from New Haven were
 in the company taking in the scene he
 stepped up and was introduced to several, and some he recognized He was well
 dressed, looking trim and neat, in good flesh,
 fair and ruddy. He talked readily and
 fuently and entertains the idea that
 he will be granted a new trial, which
 was doubted by the party, though they did
 not so inform him He is employed part
 of the time on work upon the asylum roads
 or other occupations In his room, Tn the
 criminal department, there are no ornaments
 except two oil pictures of himself and wife
 respectively, and a small picture of a cross
 entwined with flowers and bearing text of
 Scripture.
 Among the throng of male patients who
 were listening to the music of the band was
 Mr Babcock He came forward and greeted l 1o1
 tirely rational and has been so for some time,
 and is looking forward with great comfort to
 his release, which will be in a couple of days,
 when his term of confinement expires. He
 was haggard and nervous, owing to the spot
 he was in, but was tolerably cheerful and
 hopeful. He looked nervously around once or twice at his brother patients, as if uncom-
 fortable at being found in such a motley as- semblage and desirous of taking the first train
 for New Haven.
 The asyIum's spacious grounds in front are beautifully adorned, the landscape gardening
 effects being very pretty and tasteful, and October has not yet divested some of the
 flower beds of their rare beauty.
 The mild female lunatics were mostly out in the large enclosure devoted to their bene- 1 hC Dack or these buildings. 1ASre were
 three or four dozen of them. Some squatted
 on the grass, sitting alone, others were seated under the arbor in the center of the area, apparently having a sociable time of 1t,
 while others sprang up the mo ment they saw the commissioners !: and reporters coming and opened an incoherent chattering about nothing in
 particular, rattling of chain of sentences
 with freedom peculiar to the sex. They soon drew of when they found that the au-
 dience was inattentive. One woman persist
 ed on being introduced to the whole party, which being done Mrs. Burr (for that was her
 name) was all alive, requesting in a dramatic style that the members of the press present should at once institute measures for her im- mediate release This is one of her hobbies. She was a thin faced, nervous, but spirited , lady, voluble and persistent, and the party