HISTORY OF ATLANTIC COUNTY ASYLUM FOR INSANE
1895 to 1904

Information located at http://www.rootsweb.com/~njatlant/
On a USGenWeb/NJGenWeb Web site
TRANSCRIBED BY JANICE BROWN, County Coordinator in 2006 
Please see the web site for my email contact.
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The original source of this information is in the public domain, 
however use of this text file, other than for personal use, is 
restricted without written permission from the transcriber 
(who has edited, compiled and added new copyrighted text to same).
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SOURCE: Absegami : annals of Eyren Haven and Atlantic City, 1609 to 
1904 : being an account of the settlement of Eyren Haven or Egg 
Harbor, by Alfred M. Heston, 1904.

pages 274-275

The county insane asylum is located on the Shore road, at 
Smithslanding, in the borough of Pleasantville.  The building is of
brick and was erected in 1895. At a meeting of the Board of 
Freeholders, in the early part of that year (January 9th) Tobias L.
McConnell, steward of the almshouse, suggested to the board the wisdom
of providing means for taking care of the insane patients of the
county on the almshouse property.  The question was discussed 
informally and referred to a special committee to inquire into the
practicability of the suggestion and report at a subsequent meeting
of the board.

At the following meeting, held on March 13th, the committee reported
through Freeholder John T. Irving, that they had visited the
asymlums of Camden and Burlingotn Counties, and the results in both
counties were very satisfactory, both as to the condition of the
patients and the cost of maintenance. The committee was thereupon
instructed to procure an approximate estimate of the cost of a 
building suited to the needs of Atlantic County. Two months later
this committee reported an approximate estimate of the cost of
maintaining the proposed county lunatic asylum at $3,500 annually
after deducting the amount to be derived from the State. The following
resolution was therefore adopted:
 "Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed to secure plans,
invite proposals and award a contract for the erection of an insane
asylum and that work on the same be commenced and pushed to 
completion at the earliest possible date."

Mr. Irving offered a second resolution, which was also adopted,
providing for an issue of county bonds, not exceeding $25,000 in
the aggregate, to pay for the proposed asylum.  Plan were prepared by
William G. Hoopes, architect, proposals were invited and the contract
awarded on August 13, 1895 to J. Summerill Smith, of Atlantic City,
for the sum of $21,490.  Including extras and furnishings, the first
cost of the asylum was slightly in excess of $23,000.  The building
was finished in the early part of 1896, and the patients in the
State Asylum, at Trenton, thirty-five in number, were transferred to
Smithslanding in March.  Mr. McConnell had been previously elected
superintendent and Mrs. McConnell, matron.
  The name of the "Atlantic County Asylum For Insane" was officially
given the institution on January 8, 1896, on the motion of Freeholder
John T. Irving.
  Since the completion of the building two additions have been made.
A wing was first added to the men's ward and about the beginning of
1904 a similiar extension of the women's ward was finished. The total
cost of the building, including furnishings and extensions, is
$73,000. The dining room is now in the basement, and it is proposed
to erect another wing in the near future, with a dining room on the
main floor.  The view on another page was made from a photograph
taken in 1900, before the wings were added.
  At this writing (May 1904) the number of inmates is 73--37 male
and 36 female--or about double the number when the institution
was opened nine years ago.  The number of admissions since 1895 has 
been 1936.  During the same period 58 have died and 40 have been
discharged as cured.
  The county farm, which surrounds the asylum and almshouse, contains
ninety acres, exclusive of meadow land. The farm alone is valued
at $30,000.  It cost the county $1,700 in 1837, when old Gloucester
County was dismembered by the creation of the new county of Atlantic.
  The insane asylum has saved the county an average of nearly 
$10,000 a year during the past eight years, and has thus paid for
itself.  This saving is due to the greater cost of maintaining the
county insane at the State Asylum, in Trenton.  The wisdom of
Superintendent McConnell's recommendation to the board is
apparent in this decreased cost of maintaining the indigent insane
of the county.
  That the institution is propertly conducted and is a model asylum
is evidenced by a presentment made by the grand jury to the court
at Mayslanding on April 27, 1904 [this review by the grand jury of
the asylum stating it was a model county asylum is found in the
original document, but omitted here].