The contract was awarded to Mr. A. D. Rockey, of Minneapolis, the lowest responsible bidder, for $17,135, the lowest bid… Mr. Rockey is the same party who put in the foundation last fall. The two buildings under contract are to be completed outside, the floors laid and plastering completed. Besides the usual custom of keeping back fifteen per cent till the work is done, the contractor is to give bonds for the faithful performance of the work. The buildings are to be constructed of Rochester brick. (The Rochester Post, Friday, February 9, 1877, Page 3)
Mr. Rockey, the contractor for putting in the stone foundation of the Inebriate Asylum building, is engaged in completing the work. The contractors for the erection of the building, Messrs. Stellwagen & Co., of Winona, are making arrangements to commence work on the job, soon. Mr. Ed. Whitcomb, of this city, has the contract for furnishing the brick. The amount required will be at least 500,000, perhaps more. Mr. H. Haskins, also of this city, is to furnish the cut stone. The stone are to be procured at the Mantorville quarry. (The Rochester Post, Friday, April 13, 1877, Page 3)
Above, we present our readers with a fine view of the Minnesota Inebriate Asylum, the state institution located in this city. This view has been engraved expressly for the Post, under the supervision of L. S. Buffington, of Minneapolis, the architect who designed the structure, and represents the entire building as it will be when completed. It will be seen that it is the plan of a series of handsome and commodious buildings thoroughly adapted to the great charity for which they have been designed. This is, as its name implies, a state institution for the cure and reformation of inebriates. It was first established by an act of the Legislature of 1873 which provided for its support by a fund drawn from a special license of ten dollars to be taken out by every person selling liquor in the state. Our home readers are well aware of the efforts to evade the payment of these licenses and the attempts in the Legislature to repeal the law, but despite the opposition against which the institution has contended the main building is already erected. The Asylum is under the management of a Board of Directors which is at present composed of the following gentlemen: W. L. Wilson, St. Paul, President; C. A. Wheaton, Northfield, Secretary; Thomas Brooks, Rochester, Treasurer; J. Q. Farmer, Spring Valley; T. L. Evarts, Rushford; and Gov. J. S. Pillsbury and Secretary of State J. S. Irgens, ex-officio members. The Asylum farm contains one hundred and sixty acres of land, and was purchased nearly two years ago, from Mr. Jacob Rickert, at the very reasonable sum of nine thousand dollars. It lies at the eastern boundary of the city, one hundred and twenty acres being south of the railroad track. The farm is mostly prairie land, a beautiful, level surface, and commands a fine view of the city, the railroad and the adjacent farms. The soil is a dark loam, easy of cultivation and exceedingly fertile. There are some scattering oaks on the north part of the farm. Besides these, there is a clump of fine, thrifty oaks some eight or ten rods west of the buildings, and when the contemplated improvements and approaches are completed, the location will be extremely handsome and attractive. The site selected for this magnificent structure is about fifty rods north of the street running east and west on the south side of the farm, and fifty rods from the railroad on the north. The entire building will have a south front three hundred and fifty feet in length by one hundred and fifty feet in depth. The main, or administration building, is 63x63 feet in size, and three stories high, exclusive of basement. On the first floor of this building, there are to be reception rooms, parlors, offices, apothecary shop, private rooms and chambers. The second and third stories will contain dormitories. In the third story there is to be a chapel. In the basement will be the laundry, ironing room and furnace. This portion of the structure is to be surmounted by a neat tower, eighty feet in height from grade. On either side of the main building there are to be two hospitals, each building or section 42x104 feet, and two stories high above basement. The hospitals will be alike, in reference both to construction and rooms. The first story will contain a reading room, day rooms, physicians’ rooms and private office, and several restraining rooms. The second story will be appropriated entirely to dormitories. The hospital basement will contain dining-rooms, smoking rooms, servants’ rooms, kitchens, store-rooms, bath-rooms and water-closets. Still beyond each hospital building, there are to be the high-paying patients’ buildings. These are to be 63x40 feet in size and, also, two stories high, exclusive of basement. The basements of these buildings will contain dining-rooms, smoking-rooms, servants’ rooms, kitchen, bathrooms and water closets. On the first story there are to be sitting-rooms, patients’ and attendants’ rooms. The second story will be appropriated to patients’ and attendants’ rooms. Directly in the rear of the main or central building, there is to be a building called “Amusement Hall.” This is to be 36x63 feet in size and two stories high. In the basement of this section there is to be a gymnasium, barber shop, bath-room and water-closets. On the first floor there will be the library and recreation room. In the second story there is to be a billiard-room, card-room and lecture-room. The building is to be constructed by sections, the different portions to be connected by corridors, each 10x25 feet. The basement is to be nine feet in the clear; the first story of each section, thirteen feet, second story, twelve feet, and third story of the main building, eleven feet. The high-paying patients’ buildings and the amusement hall are to be surmounted with towers, fifty feet in height from grade. The roof is to be half Mansard, of ornamental shingle. The basement wall, from grade to water-table, is to be of range stone; the building above the basement is to be of brick, with different colored brick trimming. The entire building is to be heated by steam. The main building and the east hospital are now up and enclosed, ready for the inside finish. The partition walls are to be (unreadable word) with matched lumber on either side, the whole to be furrowed, lathed and plastered. The foundation walls of the main building and east hospital – the portion now up – were mostly put in one year ago last fall; the balance being completed the following spring. Mr. A. D. Rockey, of Minneapolis, was the contractor. Mr. C. Bohn, of Winona, was the contractor for the erection of the superstructure now completed, and it is gratifying to know that the work has been done in a manner entirely creditable to the builder and advantageous to the state. And at this point, it is just and proper to state that Mr. Thomas Brooks, resident member of the Asylum Board, has given his personal and constant attention to the work in all its various stages. The amount already expended on these buildings and grounds is $34,000 and the estimated cost of the entire structure, when completed, is $75,000. (The Rochester Post, Friday, February 8, 1878, Page 1) IS A PIC HERE
Two years ago a detached ward was built adjacent to the St. Peter hospital, to accommodate 100 patients, at a cost of $25,000, or $250 each. The experiment having proven satisfactory, the recent legislature made appropriations for three additional detached wards at St. Peter and two at Rochester, which will provide for 500 patients at a cost of $125,000. (The People’s Press, Owatonna, Friday, June 12, 1885, Page 3)
The new detached ward building of the Insane Hospital which has been in the course of construction for two years past is completed and forms a very fine addition in every way to that institution. The building has been erected under contract by Mr. O. R. Mather, of Mankato, and under the supervision of Mr. F. L. V. Mount, of this city, employed as superintendent for the state. The building is planned to accommodate two hundred patients, but it is thought that about two hundred and forty will be got into it. It is intended to use it for the more manageable male patients. The cost of the building is $42,000 and the cost of furnishing it $8,000. In all $50,000. The new building is located southeast of the old buildings, it being eighty-five feet in a straight line from the southeast corner of east wing of the main building to the northwest corner of the new building. The structure is of four stories, each eleven feet in height above the ground, with a basement under the entire building seven feet in height, with thick stone partition walls, upon which the structure rests. The building is of red brick, relieved in the projections by straw colored brick and a slate roof. Everything about it is very substantial and of the best material and workmanship. The entire edifice is 50 by 185 feet in size, is rather plain, but imposing in its proportions, with moderately projecting gables and cornices, graceful verandas, and has decidedly the most attractive front of any of the hospital buildings. The rooms are divided off in the same way in the several stories, being supported by partitions resting on solid partitions in the basement and by pillars of wrought iron covered by stucco, supporting iron beams from which are sprung arches, forming the ceiling of one story and supporting the floor of the story above, all the floors being laid on cement. It is a thoroughly fire proof building. On the first floor is a kitchen 32 by 36 feet in size, with a floor laid in tiles of artificial stone of alternate white and colored squares. Off the kitchen are a bed room for the cooks, storage and pantry rooms and other apartments for convenience. Beyond the kitchen is a dining room, fifty feet square, with eight large columns and beyond it a large sitting and smoking room. Adjoining these are smaller but commodious rooms for the use of attendants, and a clothes room and a bath room with tubs and shower and spray baths. There are convenient front and rear entrances to the main rooms. The second story is divided into rooms slimier in arrangement to those on the floor below, to be used as day rooms or rooms for the general use of patients. There are broad verandas on the east and west sides of the second and third stories, with hard pine floors and ornamental iron railings, making very pleasant outlooks. The third and fourth stories are to be used as dormitories and furnished with iron bedsteads, with wire spring mattresses. They are large, airy and very well ventilated rooms. The stairs are all of hard wood and the floors of southern hard pine. The wood work of the rooms is chiefly of pine and is painted in imitation of different woods in the several stories. The first story of oak, the second of cherry, the third of butternut and the fourth of walnut. The painting has been done under contract by Mr. W. S Elkins. The building is heated throughout by ten hot air furnaces in the basement, burning hard coal, lighted with gas from Hospital gas works and supplied with hot and cold water from the Hospital well and boilers. There are several improvements in the walks, drives and lawns surrounding the new building, either under way or projected, which will add greatly to its appearance when finished. It is intended to build in another season a new gymnasium, to be a hundred feet long and of two stories, one above and the other below ground. It is to be located in the space north of the new building. Besides the building we have above described there have been many other improvements made about the Hospital and grounds. Some additions are constantly being made to the arrangements for carrying on the immense establishment, and during this season many needed improvements and alterations have been made about the older buildings. The water system has been added to by laying a thousand feet of mains, for which trenches eight feet deep had to be dug and refilled, and putting in five fire hydrants and four lawn sprinkling hydrants. The interior of the central building has been greatly improved by the painting of the walls of the several halls and corridors in attractive colors and handsome patterns, the work of Mr. S. H. Date. A paint shop, 24 by 25 feet in size, and a blacksmith shop, 24 by 40 feet, both of brick, have been put up in the rear of the main building. The kitchen in the basement of the main building has been enlarged and improved in convenience by an addition 88 by 18 feet in size, and by replacing one of the tunnels from the kitchen to the dining room with a larger and better one. A flour room of 18 by 24 feet has been added to the bakery. A new steel boiler 16 by 5 feet in size and of seventy horse power is now being put up in the rear of the main building. It is of the same size as the two already in use and is intended to be kept in reserve in case of accident to the others or for use in any case where it is needed. The stable has been improved by the addition of new stalls above ground for the keeping of thirty cows and seven horses needed for the use of the Hospital. In addition to these improvements on the immediate grounds a great improvement has been made in opening up the new extension of Fifth street to the Hospital. Superintendent Bowers has had the street graded with a solid bed and thoroughly drained and laid a first-class wooden sidewalk on the north side of the street extending some distance this side of the limits of the Hospital ground. Much of the grading within the city’s territory has been done by the Hospital’s workmen. The slough through which the road runs has been improved by a drain twelve hundred feet long running at right angles with the street, emptying into a ditch along the railroad, and seven feet deep at its lower end. The work on it was done by the Hospital patients. (The Rochester Post, Friday, January 6, 1888, Page 2)
Sealed proposals will be received by the undersigned, secretary of the board of trustees, Minnesota hospitals for insane, until 12 m., May 17th, 1888, for building a detached ward to second hospital for insane at Rochester. Copies of plans and specifications can be procured of W. B. Dunnell, “architect,” 408 Nicollet avenue, Minneapolis, Minn., on and after May 1st, 1888. …The building to be completed on or before Sept. 1st, 1889. Bids will be opened at a meeting of the trustees to be held at the hospital in St. Peter on Thursday, May 17th, 1888. (The Rochester Post, Friday, May 11, 1888, Page 4)