Former Buildings and Structures of New Zealand - Archaeological Sites in New Zealand, Defunct Hospitals in New Zealand, Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (Paperback)

Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Archaeological Sites in New Zealand, Defunct Hospitals in New Zealand, Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, Archaeological Evidence of Gender in Central Otago Mining Communities, Whale Island, New Zealand, Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital, Lake Alice Hospital, Auckland Adventist Hospital, Te Wairoa, Wairau Bar. Excerpt: The hospital was built in what has been called a Gothic-themed 'fantasy castle' design.Seacliff Lunatic Asylum (often only Seacliff Asylum, later Seacliff Mental Hospital) was a psychiatric hospital in Seacliff, New Zealand. When built in the late 19th century, it was the largest building in the country, noted for its scale and extravagant architecture. It would also become infamous for construction faults resulting in partial collapse, as well as a fire in 1942 which destroyed a wooden outbuilding, claiming 37 (39 according to others) victims trapped in a locked ward. The asylum was located less than 20 miles north of Dunedin and close to the county centre of Palmerston, in an isolated coastal spot within a forested reserve. The site is now divided between the Truby King Recreation Reserve, where most of the old buildings have been demolished and most of the area still remains dense woodland, and The Asylum backpacker hostel, which uses some remaining hospital buildings. New Zealand's largest building was an exercise in Gothic Revival architecture, but its facades belied the utilitarianism of its repetitious interior. The need for a new asylum in the Dunedin area was created by the Otago gold rush expansion of the city, and triggered by the inadequacy of the Littlebourne Mental Asylum. In 1875, the Provincial Council decided to build a new structure on "a reserve of fine land at Brinn's Point, north of Port Chalmers". Initial work was be... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=11973361