Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2023 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== The Official and Political Manual of the State of Tennessee pub: Marshall and Bruce, Stationers, Nashville, TN - 1890 Pgs 253-254 INSANE ASYLUMS Central Hospital for the Insane Located at Nashville As early as 1830 the attention of the General Assembly was called to the necessity of an institution of this kind, and by act of October 19, 1832, Chapter 31, Building Commissioners -- H. R. W. Hill, Francis Porterfield, Joseph Woods, James Roane, Felix Robertson, and Samuel Hogg, all of Davidson County -- were appointed, and $10,000 appropriated, to erect a State Lunatic Asylum. A commodius stone structure of moderate capacity was erected in the suburbs of the city of Nashville, which served as the State Lunatic Asylum until the opening of the present institution, March 1, 1852. An act of February 20, 1836, appropriated $2,500 to complete and furnish same, and named Robert Woods, John Shelby, Felix Robertson, and James Overton as Commissioners to superintend the same. By Chapter 128, acts of 1837-38, passed January 20, 1838, $15,000 was appropriated in aid of the asylum, and Boyd McNairy, Thomas Jennings, R. C. K. Martin, James W. Combs, and Felix Robertson were made Commissioners, with power to choose one of their number as Superintendent. Drs. Boyd McNairy, John D. Kelly, and John T. McNairy acted as attendant physicians to the old asylum. Chapter 163, Acts of 1845-46, gave the Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer power to sell out the old asylum and purchase a new site of not less than four hundred acres. During the session of the General Assembly of 1847-48 it was visited and addressed by a memorial from Miss D. L. Dix, a lady philan- thropist, in behalf of the unfortunated insame, and under her touching and forcible appeals, the act was passed which organized the "Tennessee Hospital for the Insame." Governor Neil S. Brown, the Governor, appointed Alexander Allison, Lucius J. Polk, Andrew Ewing, Thomas T. Player, John J. White, Henry S. Frazier, Daniel S. Donelson, J. J. B. Southall, and Samuel D. Morgan, Commissioners to purchase a site and erect the hospital. Alex- ander Allison was Chairman and Andrew Ewing, Secretary. This Board, in 1848, purchased a beautiful farm site, six and a half miles south- easterly from Nashville, on the Murfreesboro pike, containing two hundred and fifty acres. They appointed Adolphus Heiman architect and Dr. John S. Young superintendent of construction, who constructed a building which, with the extensions, is four hundred and seven feet in frontage from east to west, and of the castellated order of architecture. Under an act of 1855 the Trustees purchased two hundred acres additional, which make the farm now comprise four hundred and fifty acres. This asylum is furnished, run, and kept up to all the modern requirements of such institutions, and can accommodate comfortably from 350 to 400 insane. In 1866 an asylum for the colored insane was erected on a beautiful eminence several hundred yards south-westerly from the main hospital buildings, and is run under the same management, though separately. The following have served as Superintendent: Dr. W. A. Cheatham, from March 1, 1852, to July 1, 1862; Dr. W. P. Jones, from July 1, 1862, to January 1, 1870; Dr. John H. Callender, from January 1, 1870, to date. The following have served as President of the Board of Trustees: S. R. Cockrill, from 1852 to 1862; E. H. East, from 1862 to 1865; T. A. Atchison, from 1865 to 1877; H. B. Buckner, from 1877 to date. =============================================================================== The Tennessean Saturday, 14 March 1891 (extract from an article about the fire) HISTORY OF THE BUILDING It Was Constructed in 1845 and Has Since Been Added to. Dorothy L. Dix, the great philanthropist, came to Nashville in a trip all over the world and inaugurated the movement which resulted in the building of the asylum in 1845. The original appropriation of the Legislature was $75,000. Subsequently various appropriations were made to increase the accommodations from 100 to about 250 patients. About $200,000 was spent in all. This is exclusive of what Dr. Callender has spent in various additions and improvements. At the time it was put up money was scarce, and it was, compared to the two asylums which have recently been built by the State, very poorly and flimsily constructed. Dr. W. A. Cheatham took charge of the institution when it was finally completed in 1854-55, and retained the charge until 1863, when he was placed in the penitentiary by Gov. Johnson, and Dr. W. P. Jones was appointed Superintendent by Gov. Johnson. Dr. Jones held it about six years, when the Board of Trustees elected Dr. John H. Callender, the present Superintendent. He has been there, there- fore, nearly or quite twenty years. There are in the asylum at this time about 400 inmates, some ninety of whom are negroes. ===============================================================================