Ladies and Children

In 1930, Essondale experienced tremendous growth. New buildings built, the community on the grounds - patients and staff who lived at Essondale - grew. New treatments for helping the mentally ill were tried. Even with the challenges of the Great Depression and the nursing shortage caused by World War II, Essondale continued to give a high level of care.

The female patient population at Essondale was increasing. It was in October of 1930 when the Chronic Female Building, later known as East Lawn, opened and the first female patients arrived on the grounds. 500 women were transferred from the Provincial Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster. This was the start of significant growth at Essondale.

A month later, the first Nurse's Home opened in order to provide accommodations for the female staff. Training of nurses also began at East Lawn that year. Because nurses were in such urgent demand, training was fast and the first student nurses graduated in the spring of 1932. These women would then help train the next batch of nurses who were on a two-year schedule. After that, it was three years of training until 1951 when it became a two-year program.

The Boys Industrial School was moved to the former trades building when the cottages were upgraded following the 1935 Provincial Home for the Aged Act. (I am guessing that the aged were moved into the upgraded cottages.)

Also affecting the Boys' School in 1935 was a major policy change where the school was acting more like an instructional institution instead of a correctional one. The outside work was also reduced to be more of an instructional device, leaving more time for classes and vocational training.

Essondale was constantly shifting patients and resources to meet the needs of the community and would continue to do so throughout its history.

There were children on the grounds of Essondale as well. Many staff lived on the grounds of this remote community and it was like a small town.

"As children growing up on Essondale, we were a close knit bunch and almost impervious to the outside world, and us and our families almost invariably lived our own lives within the realms of Essondale."

"The first store of any description was certainly a welcome addition. It was operated by the CNIB and opened around 1935, the first proprietor being Archie Shearer and his wife. It was a real treat to be able to walk down and buy a pop on a hot summer day or just walk there for something to do - what excitement! No TV, no picture shows but I can't ever remember being bored growing up and living at Essondale."

From Up on The Hill by Tom Symington

"There was one classroom for Grades 1 to 12 at Essondale School. We'd go the cannery at Colony Farm for field trips or our teacher would take us over to the Essondale grounds and get us to name trees."

Art Talbot

Grew up at Essondale during the 1940s and 1950s.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

BISCO

From 1920 to 1921, a group of five Tudor-Revival cottages were built on Essondale property. These were to house incorrigible youth. The Provincial Industrial School for Boys was the start of the provincial juvenile reformatory system. 

The school took the boys who were confined by law and saw they received an education, industrial training and moral rehabilitation. Essondale was chosen for the location because it was isolated.

The school became known as BISCO - Boys Industrial School, Coquitlam - and it made use of the medical and psychiatric care at Essondale. The boys weren't isolated from the patients and staff at the hospital. They participated in social and recreational activities on the grounds. The school had its own farm, which provided, milk, beef, veal, pork, chicken, eggs and vegetables to the school kitchen.

The Colony Farm was recognized as one of the finest farming operations by the 1920s. Most of the food for Essondale was produced through the piggery, land, dairy and cannery. The Holstein herd was the largest in BC and the cows were milked four times a day by hand thus making the milkers the majority of the workforce at Essondale.

The farm grew grain, pumpkin, turnips, celery, onions, beets, rhubarb, lettuce and corn. Fruit such as pears, peaches, apricots and apples, as well as various vegetables, were preserved in the cannery. Jam was also made in the cannery.

The Acute Psychopathic unit, Essondale's second building, opened in November of 1924. It was later known as Centre Lawn and originally held 300 beds.

Another event in November of 1924 was the arrival of Miss Van Wyck. Van Wyck was first Lady Superintendent, the first registered nurse at Essondale and the hospital's first nurse with post graduate training in mental illness.

Centre Lawn eased the overcrowding at Essondale but the women's department at the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster was overflowing with female patients so plans were put in place to open a permanent Chronic Building at Essondale for those patients.

Here's a brief look at mental care in the 1920s at Essondale.

Occupation continued to be the main source of therapy, women's duties included sewing and mending of clothing and linens. Men who were too mentally ill to engage in industrial work were found work in other areas.

The most common ailment for those admitted to Essondale in 1925 was manic depression.

In 1925, 1,884 patients resided at Essondale. 73 were at home, on probation. Only 2 patients escaped. There was 475 new admissions and in total, 2,434 patients were treated. 142 died and 297 were discharged.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

The West Lawn

On April 1, 1913, the doors to the Hospital for the Mind at Mount Coquitlam opened its doors. However, the name was confusing for the mail delivery so it was soon changed to Essondale, in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young. The name would stay Essondale for fifty years until it was renamed Riverview.

The Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster sent 340 patients to the Male Chronic Wing, later known as the West Lawn. By the end of the year, the new building housed 453 patients.

Then World War I started and 52 staff members joined the war effort. These temporary positions were filled by those rejected by the armed forces or married men. Before this, the only married men allowed at Essondale were doctors. Desperate times call for changes in policy. During World War II, this privilege was extended to women.

By 1916, the population at Essondale had exploded. The West Lawn unit was now overcrowded with 687 patients. Dr. J.G. McKay, the Medical Superintendent, urged the government to build a new acute unit to house another 150 patients. That would take another eight years.

But Essondale was still regarded as a showcase of modern mental health care.

"It was a delightful Sunday afternoon in June when we paid our visit to this unique institution. We saw the patients roaming around the inviting recreation park or lying lazily under the trees. They all appeared to be satisfied with their lot. The lawns in front of the building are in the process of being terraced, and a large artificial lake is being planned. The patients will be able to fish there to their hearts' content.

Facilities for all sorts of outdoor games have been provided and any fine evening after tea you can see innumerable games of baseball, football and cricket in progress...of utmost value for mental patients. It renders them more composed and patient, and better satisfied with themselves. Being a factor in the production of health and happiness, it also becomes a mean of a cure. Recoveries are more frequent when the patient has the advantage of an agricultural colony. The crop raised last year included sufficient vegetables to supply the hospital and fodder to feed the great herd of livestock all winter long."

Excerpted from The Colony Farm for the Mentally Defective by Genevieve L. Skinner, Saturday Night, 1914. 

In 1916, when UBC opened, John Davidson moved approximately 26,000 plants - Essondale's botanical garden plants collection - to the university. The trees were too large to move and they stayed at the hospital grounds. The nursery also stayed and by 1922, it had expanded to cover 12 acres. Essondale, then Riverview, continued to supply shrubbery and trees to public institutions and highways in the province until the 1960s.

Head Gardener Jack Renton, who had trained in Kew England at the Royal Botanical Gardens, was now head of landscaping. Renton not only helped transform Essondale grounds into a serene, beautiful environment but he also aided in obtaining more than 160 species of trees from most continents.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, a Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information and to the City of Vancouver Archives for the old photos.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill