- Sunnyside Hospital
Sunnyside Hospital 1863-1999, was the first mental asylum to be built in
Christchurch, New Zealand . It was initially known as 'Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum', and its first patients were 17 people who had previously been kept in the Lyttleton gaol. [ Blake-Palmer, Geoffrey. 1966. 'Hospitals, Mental', In , A. H. McLintock, ed., "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". (Accessed 19 August 2007) [http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/MedicalServices/HospitalsMental/en] ]In 2007, Hilmorton Hospital is just one of the mental health services that are based on the old Sunnyside Hospital grounds.
Architecture
Sunnyside Hospital was primarily designed by the New Zealand Victorian gothic architect,
Benjamin Mountfort , with an administration building designed byJohn Campbell .taff
Edward William Seagar was the first superintendent of Sunnyside Hospital.In 1995, four years before the hospital's closure, nurses walked off the job because of dangerous working conditions.
Famous patients
*
Rita Angus (1950) Artist [Paul, Janet. 1982. 'Rita Angus'. National Art Gallery, New Zealand. (Accessed 19 August 2007. [http://www.artdeco.org.nz/p44.htm] .]*
Janet Frame Writer. Frame described some of her experiences in Sunnyside Hospital in her autobiography "An Angel at my Table ", and her novel "Faces in the Water".[Mrs R. said it would] be a good idea for me to admit myself as a voluntary boarder to Sunnyside Mental Hospital where there was a new electric treatment, which, in her opinion, would help me. . . . I woke toothless and was admitted to Sunnyside Hospital and I was given the new electric treatment, and suddenly my life was thrown out of focus. I could not remember. I was terrified. [Frame, Janet. "Autobiography" p. 213. Quoted in Henke, Suzette, A. 'Jane Campion Frames Janet Frame: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young New Zealand Poet'. "Biography" 23.4 (2000): 661]
*
Mabel Howard ( - 23 June 1972) Union worker, politician, and New Zealand's first woman cabinet minister. [McAloon, Jim (2000). 'Howard, Mabel Bowden 1894 - 1972'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 April 2006 [http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=5H38] . ]*
Richard Pearse (June 1951 - July 1953) Inventor and aviator. Pearce flight tested aircraft in New Zealand from 1902, and is reputed to have successfully flown on about the 31st March 1903. [Bernard John Foster. 1966. 'Pearse, Richard William'. In , A. H. McLintock, ed., "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". (Accessed 19 August 2007) [http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/P/PearseRichardWilliam/PearseRichardWilliam/en] ]Footnotes
References
* Blake-Palmer, Geoffrey. 1966. 'Hospitals, Mental', In , A. H. McLintock, ed., "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". (Accessed 19 August 2007) [http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/MedicalServices/HospitalsMental/en]
* [http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage/Places/Public/Hospitals/Sunnyside/ Christchurch City Libraries, Heritage, (accessed 19 Aug 2007)]
* Frame, Janet. 1991. "An Autobiography". "To the Island". "An Angel At My Table". "The Envoy from Mirror City". New York: George Braziller.
* Frame, Janet. 1961. Reprinted in 1980. "Faces in the Water". London: The Women's Press.External links
* [http://www.historic.org.nz/Register/ListingDetail.asp?RID=7683&sm= Sunnyside Hospital listing at the NZ Historic Places Trust]
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