Willow Court, background
Oct. 31st, 2007 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithThis is background for the post I've been promising ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_aspie_zoo since 2004, when I visited the old Willow Court site for a work conference.
I've posted many of these photos before, but without the descriptions. Only daytime photos, unfortunately. I managed to break the camera on the second day, so it wouldn't focus. I didn't realise this at the time because it was a new camera, bought earlier in the week, and I was still learning how to use it. I also left it in my motel room when we went to the dinner on the second night of the conference, because I'd been carrying it around all day and there was eating and drinking and general carry on planned for that evening. And you don't really expect someone to come in towards the end of a lot of eating, drinking and carrying on and ask who wants to go on a ghost tour, do you?
The site then.
Willow Court, down in New Norfolk, was part of the Royal Derwent Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital, the loony bin,the place where children who didn't do what they were told were sent. It was closed down in the 1990s.
The oldest building on the site is the old convict invalid depot/asylum, built about 1829 (and another John Lee Archer design), which makes it the oldest purpose built mental facility in the country, or something like that. This is the actual Willow Court that the site takes its name from. The story is that Lady Franklin visited the site, and planted a willow in the courtyard.
I found a picture (lithograph) of the place just after it was built.
As far as treatment of patients went, it seems typical of a mental institution of either the 19th or 20th century. I saw on one web site that they were using electric shock treatment in 1851. An interesting subject to dwelve into, but today we're looking at the buildings to give an idea of what the site is like. It was just starting to be redeveloped in 2004 so most of the buildings were boarded up. I found an aerial photo on a real estate advertisement so I'm going to refer to that.
Top middle you can see the light-coloured, left-facing C of Willow Court. Above that, on the edge of the site, is a large grassed area enclosed by a wall.
The two storey building between these, middle of this photo, I will come back to in the next post :)
Left of this, just above the yellow line, is the second building that I'll come back to.
The admin building (on the left, just below the yellow line) built about 1940 has obvious Art Deco influences.
Two storey nurse's home (lower left of area enclosed by yellow line), built around 1911. The wooden trim around the verandahs, the chimneys, the windows are all fairly typical of Federation buildings. Obviously there was a garden at the front once.
From the back.
This must be the building described on the Heritage Database as the 'Ladies Cottage' built 1868. "Originally used to accommodate 'female patients of a superior class' and most recently to train nurses. Located in a large open space. It was originally a single-storey brick building with a verandah. A second-storey was added in 1903. Windows on the ground floor are a traditionally sized double hung casements and the windows on the first floor are tall, narrow double hung casements with on to each ward. While the windows are all in an ordered manner there is no relationship between the windows on each floor. Roofing is corrugated iron."
This is Frescatti, a "picturesque villa built for the Colonial Secretary" 1834. I am sure I have seen a picture of it when it was in use somewhere, but I can not find it and this frustrates me muchly.
Next post -- our late night tour.
the_aspie_zoo since 2004, when I visited the old Willow Court site for a work conference.I've posted many of these photos before, but without the descriptions. Only daytime photos, unfortunately. I managed to break the camera on the second day, so it wouldn't focus. I didn't realise this at the time because it was a new camera, bought earlier in the week, and I was still learning how to use it. I also left it in my motel room when we went to the dinner on the second night of the conference, because I'd been carrying it around all day and there was eating and drinking and general carry on planned for that evening. And you don't really expect someone to come in towards the end of a lot of eating, drinking and carrying on and ask who wants to go on a ghost tour, do you?
The site then.
Willow Court, down in New Norfolk, was part of the Royal Derwent Hospital, the state psychiatric hospital, the loony bin,
The oldest building on the site is the old convict invalid depot/asylum, built about 1829 (and another John Lee Archer design), which makes it the oldest purpose built mental facility in the country, or something like that. This is the actual Willow Court that the site takes its name from. The story is that Lady Franklin visited the site, and planted a willow in the courtyard.
I found a picture (lithograph) of the place just after it was built.
As far as treatment of patients went, it seems typical of a mental institution of either the 19th or 20th century. I saw on one web site that they were using electric shock treatment in 1851. An interesting subject to dwelve into, but today we're looking at the buildings to give an idea of what the site is like. It was just starting to be redeveloped in 2004 so most of the buildings were boarded up. I found an aerial photo on a real estate advertisement so I'm going to refer to that.
Top middle you can see the light-coloured, left-facing C of Willow Court. Above that, on the edge of the site, is a large grassed area enclosed by a wall.
The two storey building between these, middle of this photo, I will come back to in the next post :)
Left of this, just above the yellow line, is the second building that I'll come back to.
The admin building (on the left, just below the yellow line) built about 1940 has obvious Art Deco influences.
Two storey nurse's home (lower left of area enclosed by yellow line), built around 1911. The wooden trim around the verandahs, the chimneys, the windows are all fairly typical of Federation buildings. Obviously there was a garden at the front once.
From the back.
This must be the building described on the Heritage Database as the 'Ladies Cottage' built 1868. "Originally used to accommodate 'female patients of a superior class' and most recently to train nurses. Located in a large open space. It was originally a single-storey brick building with a verandah. A second-storey was added in 1903. Windows on the ground floor are a traditionally sized double hung casements and the windows on the first floor are tall, narrow double hung casements with on to each ward. While the windows are all in an ordered manner there is no relationship between the windows on each floor. Roofing is corrugated iron."
This is Frescatti, a "picturesque villa built for the Colonial Secretary" 1834. I am sure I have seen a picture of it when it was in use somewhere, but I can not find it and this frustrates me muchly.
Next post -- our late night tour.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-31 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-31 04:41 am (UTC)Don't think we went to New Norfolk. If there's not a cache there, you need to do one though (a lot of sites at Norfolk that could interesting too, reminds me, starting next month it's 200 years since they moved the settlers off the island - didn't you have a connection there?)
I posted most of the photos last year though, and you commented then.