Vernellia R. Randall
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excerpted from: "A History of Spring Grove", http://www.springgrove.com/ This picture shows the entrance to what was called the "Cottage for Colored Women." The two-story structure was completed in March of 1906, and was almost certainly the first hospital building built specifically for African-American psychiatric patients in the State of Maryland. (African-American patients were not admitted to Springfield until much later, and The Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland -- now Crownsville Hospital Center -- was not founded until 1910.) After female African-American patients were transferred from Spring Grove to Crownsville in 1913, the building became known as the "TB Cottage," and was used to house (white) female patients that suffered from tuberculosis. According to the annual report of 1906, the building housed 25 patients. The upper floor was used as sleeping quarters, and the lower floor included a sitting room ("for those who do not work") and a dining room. The building is no longer extant, but it was located immediately behind the Main Building, in the exact spot where stands today the Lawn Shop. Its location can be seen in the 1927 aerial view of Spring Grove (below the tall smoke stack on the right). |
