The Barton Building (1876 - 1976)

In 1873 plans began for the development and construction of a new asylum in the Hamilton area. The West Mountain site was considered an excellent choice due to its therapeutic view and geographical isolation. Construction began on 100 acres in 1874 with the main (Barton) building. The East and West wings were added in 1879.The Hamilton Asylum for the Insane, also called the Ontario Hospital and later the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, was initially intended to be an asylum for ‘inebriates’. However there was more need for beds for the mentally disturbed and this became its sole concern.On March 17th, 1876, the asylum officially opened when 10 men and 20 women were transferred from the Toronto asylum. For the accommodation and treatment of alcoholism. New patients continued to arrive from other asylums including Kingston and London. Patients came from all areas of Ontario including the counties of Wentworth, Halton, Peel, Simcoe, Wellington, Waterloo, Norfolk, Haldimand, Welland, Lincoln, Peterborough, Victoria and the City of Hamilton.In 1884 East House (now Century Manor) opened, originally built as a reception hospital. Patients could now come directly from the community. Prior to this, patients were transferred from other hospitals. It housed 80 men, but plans for a similar addition specifically for women were never carried out.Due to an overflow of patients at the Barton House, the Orchard House was built, and construction completed on January 24, 1888. It was demolished in 1971.The present land proved insufficient for farming and gardening, so 95 additional acres were acquired. The patient population increased to 822.In 1890, East House was set aside for the detention of Province's criminally insane. Andrew's Homestead and 8 additional acres were acquired. The entire food supply was derived from the farms. Patient airing courts, with high jail-like fences, were eliminated. Instead, inmates were engaged in a variety of outdoor games in the grove behind the Asylum.Well into the 20th century, the asylum was accessible only by dirt road and was therefore quite isolated. At its height, it covered 240 hectares from West Fifth to Garth, and the Mountain Brow to Limeridge Road; and was largely self-sufficient with the farm, on which the hospital stood, providing all the necessary food. Cattle, chickens and pigs as well as fruits and vegetables all came from the farm. It had its own bakery, butcher's shop, orchard, greenhouse, cannery, root cellar, milk-processing house, tailor's shop, sewing room, upholstery shop, blacksmith, fire hall, power house, a fleet of vehicles, skating and curling rinks, a bowling green, tennis courts and chapel. In 1890, it housed 915 patients and employed 119 people. The Barton building was demolished in 1976. The site remains a desolate field.By the 17th anniversary of the institution, 49 of the 211 patients admitted in the asylum's first year of operation were still there.Around 1902, it established a training school for psychiatric nursing which was accredited in 1924. It graduated over 240 nurses before it closed in 1956. The facility also provided training in psychiatric nursing to nurses from the other city hospitals.The Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital was owned and operated for more than 124 years by the Ontario government. In November 2000, it was transferred to the authority of the St. Joseph's Healthcare-Hamilton and has been renamed the Centre for Mountain Health Services.(McMaster University 2019)