NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE HOSPITAL.
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Though the New Hampshire State Hospital is not
under the supervision of the State Board of Chari-
ties it is included in this exhibit by courtesy of
the superintendent, in order that all the State Char-
ities may have representation here. The State Board
of Charities has twice appealed to the legislature
asking for supervision of the State Hospital and
State Prison, but in both cases their request has
been denied.
The New Hampshire State Hospital is located in
the heart of the City of Concord upon a tract of
ground highly improved, of about one hundred and
twenty-five acres. Twenty-five or thirty acres are
occupied by the various buildings and airing courts;
the remainder by the pond, farm areas, groves, avenues
and paths. In addition to the ground about the house
the Hospital owns a pasture about half a mile dis-
tant of fifty acres, besides a tract of fifty-three
acres situated on the shores of Lake Penacook, four
miles from Concord.
The history of this Hospital and of the care of
the insane in New Hampshire from the year 1830 up to
1903, is a long continual struggle for recognition by
the people of the state. For ten years after the
first awakening of special interest in the care of
the insane up to the erection of the first building
in 1842, there was constant appeal to the people in
the annual legislative sessions and through the va-
rious newspapers of the state.
The final struggle for recognition of the prin-
ciple of state care for the dependent insane oc-
curred in the legislature of 1903. In that year the
state care act was passed unanimously, and a definite
date established - January 1909 when all the de-
pendent insane should be withdrawn from the county
almshouses and cared for in the State Hospital.
An appropriation was made in 1903, looking toward
the ultimate care of all these dependent insane, and
two wings, constructed on the dormitory and day room
plan, were directly connected with existing buildings.
In 1905, the legislature made the second appro-
priation for the withdrawal of the dependent insane.
from the almshouses. This appropriation provided for
the erection of a hospital building for the care of
the infirm and sick among the chronic insane as well.
as for the admission of all recent cases requiring
special care and nursing. This building will be an
admission building. Cases will be received here, ex-
amined and located as their symptoms will require.
When these additions are all completed and when
all the dependent insane are assembled in the State
Hospital from the various county almshouses the in-
stitution will then be made up of three distinct
units. First, the central group including the admin-
istration building, the hospital building, convalescent
