LOGANSPORT, Ind. (AP) - Almost 15,000 people have visited the Longcliff Museum on the grounds of the Logansport State Hospital in the last 15 years.
Hospital staff are planning for more years of similarly positive turnouts as they move the museum’s exhibits to a new location. And while the rooms that will house them will be different, the story they tell of how the hospital has impacted mental health locally and throughout the state for more than 120 years will remain the same.
Named after the extensive bluff the hospital stands on, the museum has attracted 14,880 visitors to its location in the 103-year-old Pathology Building since August 1999.
“The building requires significant structural and mechanical systems repairs which are neither practical nor economical,” Robert Clover, superintendent of the hospital, told the Pharos-Tribune (https://bit.ly/1vchntm ).
And so its contents are being moved to a location in the campus’ original Administration Building, which has been in continuous use since opening July 1, 1888.
“With its rich history and architecture, this building is uniquely suited to house the museum,” Clover said. “… The Administration Building is our best preserved, most prominent, most interesting, most symbolic building on our grounds. It is uniquely suited to house our museum.”
It currently houses several non-medical hospital departments, which Clover said will be relocated in the near future.
Museum items will continue to be packed up and moved by hospital staff over the next several months. There are 10 rooms in all, including pictures, hospital records, dioramas, original furnishings, artwork done by former patients, a pedal saw, displays from the Longcliff Dairy Herd and more.
The hospital it celebrates was made possible by funding allocated by the Indiana General Assembly for a total of three regional mental health facilities. Lawmakers’ goal was to ease overcrowding in the only facility in the state at the time, Central State Hospital.
Originally named Northern Indiana Hospital for the Insane, the facility was built on 281 acres to accommodate 366 patients. Its name was changed to Logansport State Hospital in 1927. During the fiscal year of 1953-1954 the hospital reached its largest capacity, with 2,558 patients.
A farming operation was maintained on the hospital grounds until 1968 when it was terminated due to amendments made to the Fair Labor Standards Act that would have required patients to be paid for the form of work therapy.
“It is hoped that this museum can be useful as a tool to show not only how changes in therapeutic approaches have affected the care of the mentally ill but also how the work and dedication of the staff continues to be a major factor,” the Longcliff Museum Committee’s vision states.
Clover agreed.
“There is still a great stigma surrounding mental illness,” he said. “We hope that by bringing visitors in to share our history, they will be able to see mental illness as a disease and our patients as people learning to live with that disease.”
Clover added the hospital is planning for the museum to open in its new location sometime in 2015 with an open house.
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Information from: Pharos-Tribune, https://www.pharostribune.com
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