DeJarnette retained the position of superintendent of both WSH and the sanitarium until his retirement in 1947. In 1946, the sanitarium separated from the state hospital, and operated independently. The grounds also held tennis courts and a golf course for recreational therapy. In 1938 the Peery Building was constructed next to the original sanitarium, and the entire complex provided 171 beds. ![]() The sterilizations that the doctor pushed for were most likely conducted at the state hospital, and not at the sanitarium. The facility would be constructed and opened in that same year as the special pay unit of the Western State Hospital, and named after the doctor. On recommendation from the doctor, the Virginia General Assembly ordered the construction of a semi-private sanitarium for people with mental afflictions, including alcoholism and drug addiction in 1932. Other similar remarks earned him a less than favorable reputation in later years. In 1938 DeJarnette lamented the progress of eugenics in the U.S., saying "The Germans are beating us at our own game," in reference to the Nazi eugenics movement. 8,000 of those people were sterilized in Virginia. would eventually sterilize over 60,000 Americans deemed "unfit," which were mainly Native Americans, African Americans, the "feeble-minded" (intellectually disabled), the insane, and the poor. With funding from huge corporate philanthropies (mainly the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Harriman railroad fortune), the U.S. He also testified against Carrie Buck in the famous eugenics case Buck vs. In the early 1920s DeJarnette lobbied passionately for Virginia to pass a compulsory sterilization law, preventing "mental defectives" from having children. at many universities, and especially in the world of mental health. The eugenics movement was becoming popular in many countries in the early 20th century and gained traction in the U.S. Joseph DeJarnette, a vocal proponent of eugenics - the belief of improving the genetic quality of the human population. The director of the asylum from 1905 to 1943 was Dr. The stately Victorian buildings may be falling to pieces, but the contents inside them betray a lot about the sometimes happy, sometimes tragic lives of patients at Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane.The origin of the DeJarnette Center begins with the old Western Lunatic Asylum (also located in Staunton VA). ![]() Though asylums often carry connotations of dark and torturous existences, Willard and other institutions like it were intended to be a better alternative to systems in place for taking care of the mentally ill. In the early 19th century, those without anyone to care for them and incapable of taking care of themselves were left to almshouses (basically shelters) which were overcrowded and under resourced. ![]() In response to these squalid conditions, New York’s Surgeon General Dr. Willard proposed a state-run hospital for the insane. ![]() Abraham Lincoln himself signed off on the proposal a mere six days before his death. Willard welcomed its first patient in 1869. She was a woman named Mary Rote, described as “demented and deformed”, who had spent ten years confined to an almshouse. The theme of horrific neglect would follow in patients admitted later. One girl had been shackled in a cell since childhood, another patient arrived at Willard in a chicken crate. The dreadful situations patients were arriving from coupled with the lack of understanding of mental disability meant that Willard essentially became a dumping ground for undesirables. Patients’ afflictions ranged from severe mental and physical handicaps to “nervousness”, “chronic” to “acute” insanity, “feeblemindedness”, and “lunacy.” The asylum was built in the same style as many other Victorian institutional facilities. The campus was divided between a women’s side and a men’s side with a violent end and a non-violent end. Administration buildings sat in the middle.
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