Riverview Hospital is about to shuts its doors and Colony Farm is a regional park while the sweeping lawns and beautiful species trees on the property create an iconic landscape and respite from the grinding traffic. Historian and writer Val Adolph says the hospital, the farm and the arboretum were integral to the Riverview Hospital lands from the beginning, and are a legacy of the high ideals and wisdom of early government officials.
AN ISOLATED OUTPOST
In 1904 when the Fraser Valley was an isolated outpost of farmers, fisherman, loggers and a few entrepreneurs, a visionary man with an eye for real estate stood in the area we know know as Riverview and Colony Farm and laid out some plans.
Dr. George Manchester was worried about the crowded state of the asylum he managed in New Westminster and thought this new and larger property - 1,000 acres of lowland delta and upland forests - would make an ideal site for a new provincial psychiatric hospital.
In words that now seem prescient, Manchester wrote down his thoughts, giving shape to a notion that would stand for 99 years: "Having given a good deal of consideration to the subject, I am convinced that in view of the antiquated nature of the present institution, and the great need for considerable extension to meet future requirements as to accommodation, it would be a wise policy for the government to lay out plans for the erection of a complete modern hospital for the insane upon that property."
He was joined in his endeavour by C.E. Doherty, his successor, and Henry Esson Young, provincial secretary, who together with the support of the government of the day, created what became Essondale and, later, Riverview Hospital, with Colony Farm providing fresh food and work "therapy" for patients.
"The sense I had is that in the very early days, that people had a lot of wisdom that we seem to now lack," says Val Adolph, who has written several articles and books on Riverview Hospital and Woodlands, where she worked. She continues to worry about the fate of the Riverview property and people with mental health concerns now that the hospital is officially closing.
AN EARLY VISION
In the early days, the Riverview lands and Colony Farm were virgin timber and swamp, and it took significant vision as well as muscle to create the hospital, which would become a company town for thousands of patients and staff by the mid 1950s.
Adolph says the original vision was for a hospital for "moral treatment" providing fresh air, wholesome food and peace and quiet in a beautiful setting, but it took many people, most of them patients, to bring the project to fruition.
"The province was growing and there was certainly a need for more practical infrastructure," she says. Woodlands, the original mental hospital, was over-crowded and a new, more modern institution was needed.
Henry Esson Young got the ball rolling by freeing up government funds and the property was cleared mostly by patients, some considered excellent "axe men." One was given the responsibility of handling 17 tons of blasting powder.
A contest was held for the design of the first building and Henry Sandham Griffith was hired as architect for what was then called the Male Chronic Wing, now West Lawn. The sweeping lawns and curving roads we see today were created by G.K. McLean, an engineer and landscape architect.
The massive trees that dominate the property were originally tiny saplings and a cement walkway that runs in a straight line over terraced lawns downhill from West Lawn are an elegant reminder of McLean's early vision, refined and emphasized by gardener Jack Renton, who trained at the Kew Gardens in London.
Colony Farm was being developed around the same time to provide first root vegetables and then potatoes, meat and dairy for the hospital; an orchard planted on the Riverview property was also established, and a young Scotsman named John Davidson was given approval to establish a research and botanical garden on the site.
"The people who designed [the Riverview lands] had designed landscaping for large mansions and castles in Scotland, and they saw the large mansion-style building, thought, 'OK, we know what to do with this' and they designed it the way they'd do it at Kew," Adolph says.
BUILDING IN SAD SHAPE
To see West Lawn today, with its impressive size, distinctive cast pillars, red brick facade - bricks were made on site - and bevelled glass windows is to imagine a time of optimism and economic prosperity, when even government buildings to house the "insane" were afforded every detail. Today, wards with 50 people and shared bathrooms are no longer considered appropriate for people with mental health concerns and the rooms would have been drafty in winter and hot in the summer.
But in its day, West Lawn was a grand dame, now cracking and aged with greenery poking through the balustrades. It's nearly hidden by two large redwoods, and tucked in the far northwestern corner of the property but its beauty holds up despite being left empty for more than a quarter century.
Adolph said it is no mistake that Riverview was designed in a grand manor to inspire and provide peace and tranquility to people suffering from inner demons. To make significant alterations to the property would change, even destroy, the plans of those early pioneers, and she would like to see thoughtful preservation of the property.
"I would love to see the three grand old lady buildings rehabilitated in some way for whatever purpose might work architecturally," Adolph says about West Lawn and its sister buildings, Centre Lawn (built in 1924) and East Lawn (1930), which were built with a similar design by the Public Works Department.
Whether that can be done given the bottom-line approaches of government today is an open question. But for now, those stately buildings and lovely lawns and trees remain a legacy to British Columbians who lived, worked and were treated there, and those who pass by in their cars and give an inquiring glance as they go by.
Val Adolph's article "The History of Riverview" is available now in the Summer 2012 edition of British Columbia History. For a copy of the magazine, visit www.bchistory.com
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