Central Virginia Training Ctr

History

History
Established as the Virginia State Epileptic Colony in 1910 the facility is located on a tract of land overlooking the James River in Amherst County The property known as quotMorissanaquot was purchased from Bessie Willis and others in 1909 using funds obtained through the sale of the nearby quotMurklandquot tract that had been deeded to Western State Hospital in 1905 The facility was originally designed to serve 100 persons with epilepsy to be drawn from the 3 state mental hospitals Western Eastern and Southwestern existing at the time The first patients were admitted on May 16 1911

The DrewryGilliam building shown here in 1911 was named in honor of Dr William F Drewry and Mr Robert Gilliam of Petersburg for their efforts to secure a state facility for epileptics Constructed at a cost of 24420 the building referred to as a quotcottagequot contained a dining room laundry room serving room pantries kitchen cold storage room toilet room and a coal storage room in the basement The two upper stories contained two 40 bed wards dormitories living rooms attendants rooms linen rooms and lavatories

Other features of the original site plan included the three story colonial mansion quotMorissanaquot shown above which was renovated as the ExecutiveAdministration Building

There was also a brick two story colonial cottage for 20 patients created by enlarging the existing servants house a boiler and power house created from the existing stable yards and sheds for hogs and cattle and a newly constructed 76 mile spur track of the Norfolk and Western Rail Road to bring supplies to the facility

Starting in 1913 with the construction of the 60 bed MastinMinor building the facility was prepared to accept quotfeeblemindedquot women into residence

This was the beginning of a separate and distinct department for the quotfeeblemindedquot that coexisted with the original facility for epileptics

Just after World War I the facility received its own Post Office on grounds Although this improved mail service transportation to the facility could still be a problem Visitors were advised that if they lacked an automobile they could take the jitney from Lynchburg to Madison Heights and walk the final mile to the Colony The facility made it quite clear that it was unable to provide transportation or lodging for visitors

In 1919 the average resident population of the Colony was 508 with 351 classed as epileptics and 157 characterized as quotfeeblemindedquot The biennial report for 191921 stated that the facility name was changed to the State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded to reflect this change in the resident population By 1926 the facility reported a population of 845 composed of 347 male and 164 female epileptics and 334 female mentally retarded patients

Based on the uninformed view of mental illness and mental retardation that received both popular and scientific support at the time the concept of sterilization for certain classes of facility residents may have been discussed from the time of its founding in 1910 However in 1913 the facility superintendent noted that sterilization quotcan never become a general procedure on account of the many objections that can be raised to it nor in practical results compare with segregation and custodial controlquot 4th Annual Report 1913 Unfortunately in October of 1927 the Colony nevertheless became formally enmeshed in the now discredited quotEugenicsquot movement Acting pursuant to a Virginia law Chapter 394 Acts of the General Assembly 1924 that was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Buck v Bell the facility embarked on an illadvised program of involuntary sterilization combined with routine appendectomies of socalled quotmental defectives with cacogenic potentialitiesquot 19th Annual Report 192728 Although quotEugenicquot sterilizations were last noted in the facility annual report for 1956 medical sterilizations may have continued until 1972

In 1940 the type of individual served was omitted from the facility name and it became known as simply the Lynchburg State Colony During that year the facility had 2019 residents under treatment and for the first time allowed social visitation between male and female patients According to the Superintendent quotWe have continued to allow most of our male patients to call upon their female patient friends for a hour or so each Sunday afternoon This radical experiment has proven to be a most successful one Just how much this has been responsible for the diminution in the number of elopements from the Colony I cannot sayquot 31st annual report 1940

In the early to mid 1950s national emphasis on development of training programs marked a new era in the field of mental retardation A variety of new training programs were introduced for patients and by 1955 two thirds of the residents had the benefit of training conducted by a staff of 28 teachers Efforts were also made to increase staff skills In 1952 a state approved attendant training program consisting of 115 hours of instruction in patient care was started at the Colony By June of 1955 155 attendants had completed the course and received a certificate of proficiency In keeping with this change in focus the General Assembly changed the facilitys name in 1954 to Lynchburg Training School and Hospital

The farm that had been started in the earliest days of the Colony continued in operation with varying degrees of success into the 1950s In addition to the cultivation of soybeans wheat corn vegetables and hay the facility farm also maintained herds of Holstein dairy cattle and Duroc Yorkshire and Berkshire hogs The farm which employed many of the facility residents usually operated at a profit However specific events such as the loss of the barn and contents to fire in 1921 variations of market prices for farm produce and seasonal weather patterns resulting in drought or excessive moisture did occasionally cause deficit operations for the year In 1958 the cow barn was torn down and the dairy barn converted to a temporary dormitory By 1968 all that remained of farm operations was a greenhouse for horticulture that had been constructed and maintained with Federal funding

Client population continued to increase during the 1950s and reached 2347 in 1956 This led to unavoidable overcrowding and in 1957 an admission rate of 5 per week was established as a guide and control for space management After 62 new beds were added in 1962 and 284 in 1963 the admission rate raised to 6 per week in 1964 and 7 per week in 1965 This increased rate of admissions naturally continued to raise the overall resident population even though the facility had stopped the practice of holding patients for Western State Hospital in 1967 Finally when the resident population reached 3686 in 1972 the facility found it necessary to discontinue admissions altogether During that same year in a step towards increased efficiency of operations the facility was reorganized into seven divisions based on function Pediatrics Independent Living Severely Retarded and Infirm Intensive Social Rehabilitation Psychiatric Ambulatory and Hospital MedicalSurgical