manner back When: Public fitness in 19th-century Westport

via the Westport old Society

published 9:00 am EDT, Saturday, August three, 2019

photo: Westport ancient Society

photo: Westport old Society

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photograph: Westport historical Society

means back When: Public fitness in 19th-century Westport

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within the late 19th-century the nation became within the throes of a dizzying period of invention, know-how and wealth.

Robber baron industrialists made fortunes on new technologies from the cell to electricity to even larger manufacturing considerations. Bucolic waterfront cities like Westport, just a stone's throw from long island, offered a different possibility for these captains of industry to construct nation estates where they may rest and recreate.

These beautiful surrounds additionally offered an awesome atmosphere for those that discovered themselves in need of cures for what ailed them — in the form of pastoral recuperating hospitals.

These institutions begun in the early 19th century but came into their own during the Gilded Age of the Eighties and Nineties by using providing affluent people deepest, luxury remedies for diseases from tuberculosis to "fearful" and different psychiatric disorders.

Westport had two such hospitals: The Westport Sanitarium and Dr. McFarland's Sanitarium.

The Westport Sanitarium opened in 1891 but the property become previously owned by state Sen. Richard Henry Winslow. Westport Sanitarium accredited sufferers up unless the late Nineteen Sixties when it become purchased through Dr. Walter Langendolf founder of Evyan Perfumes. The health center was torn down within the 1970s along with the mansion house, part of the long-established Winslow estate. these days it's popular as the Winslow "dog park" owned through the city of Westport.

The other sanitarium in Westport went by the names of Dr. McFarland's Sanitarium, or in its later years hall-Brooke Sanitarium. This sanitarium started accepting sufferers as a personal institution in 1898 and today stands as a stage 2 trauma center for St. Vincent health facility.

Westport historic Society's exhibit "Taking The remedy" will open Aug. 15 and explores Westport's mental health institutions as half in a bigger social circulate to tackle considerations of mental fitness.

For more suggestions talk over with westporthistory.org. The Westport ancient Society has been a cultural and educational company dedicated to maintaining, featuring and celebrating the heritage of Westport considering that its founding in 1889.