page_title: Eastern State Hospital (Washington)
section_title: Report of the Board of Commissioners
hierarchical_section_title: Eastern State Hospital (Washington) / History / Report of the Board of Commissioners
caption_attribution_description: Board of Commissioners Report establishing Eastern State Hospital for the Insane
context_page_description: Eastern State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital established in 1891 in Medical Lake, a small community 20 miles southwest of Spokane, Washington. The original building was a Kirkbride Plan and the current building has a similar floor plan with male and female wings extending out from the main building.
  A facility for the mentally ill in Washington State, it was commissioned by the Territorial Legislature in 1886 to ease overcrowding at Western State Hospital, which at the time was the only hospital for the mentally ill in the Washington Territory. Over the years, the hospital has been the subject of a number of scandals regarding the treatment of its patients and the quality and effectiveness of the care provided. As a result of these scandals, the vast increase in scientific and medical understanding of mental illnesses and the methodologies of effective treatment thereof, the hospital has undergone numerous transitions in the past century.
  The hospital continues to operate today as a treatment hospital, far from its origins as a state mandated custodial institution and more in line with the modern understanding of how best to treat mental illnesses and disorders.
context_section_description: In 1887, following a territorial legislative session in Olympia, Thomas H. Cavanaugh and Secretary Charles W. Clarke issued their summary report, the Report of the Board of Commissioners Appointed to Select a Location for A Hospital for the Insane in Eastern Washington to the Legislative Assembly.  The report details the search and evaluation for a site to construct an insane asylum in eastern Washington State by the Board of Commissioners and how Medical Lake was the preferred location.   The report is addressed to the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Washington.
  There were many good reasons for the Board to choose Medical Lake as the site of their new hospital.  The land itself had much to offer, with a permanent spring, an abundance of building materials such as timber and granite, and numerous terraces for building sites.  The spring would be used as clean drinking water while the nearby lake would be used for lavatory and medical uses.  In addition to this, the citizens of Medical Lake proposed to donate a quarter section of the land should the hospital be built at the Medical Lake site, quoted at the time $100 an acre.
  Other sites were visited by the Board in the towns of Yakima, Walla Walla, Waitsburg, Dayton, Pomeroy, and Colfax, none of which were considered as desirable as the site at Medical Lake.  The Yakima site was quoted at $50 an acre while the Walla Walla, Waitsburg, Dayton, Pomeroy, and Colfax sites were between $10–25 an acre.  Medical Lake was more expensive and in 1887 relatively inaccessible to major railways.  However, this was not reason enough for commissioners T.J. Smith, G.J. Hill, and Charles W. Clarke to think of any other location as the best suited to construct the hospital.
caption: Board of Commissioners Report selecting a site for and authorizing the construction of Eastern State Hospital
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS REBEL T1i", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 (12.0x20100115 [20100115.m.998 2010/01/15:02:00:00 cutoff; m branch])  Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:12:13 04:57:35", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1076", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1190", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3121", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "9/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:12:12 18:33:44", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:12:12 18:33:44", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6", "EXIF ApertureValue": "13/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF SubSecTime": "46", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "46", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "46", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "524", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "800", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1044", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3168000/593", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}