Dexter Asylum Records

Almshouse, Providence, R.I.

Records, 1828-1956

Size: 27 ft.

Catalog number: MSS 67

Processed by: Kathryn Kulpa, December 1991

©Rhode Island Historical Society

Manuscripts Division

Historical note:

The Dexter Asylum served as an institution for the care of the poor, aged and mentally ill of Providence from 1828 to 1957. The Asylum began through a bequest in the will of Ebenezer Knight Dexter (1773-1824), a wealthy citizen who had served on a town committee for poor relief. Dexter's gift to the town, though much needed at the time, later was seen as an anachronism--a walled and isolated "poor farm" in the midst of Providence's residential east side. Beginning in the 1920's, city officials, developers and assorted heirs made several attempts to change the conditions of the will, and in 1957, they finally succeeded. The Dexter Asylum property was sold to Brown University.

Ebenezer Dexter's will of 1824 left a property known as Neck Farm to Providence to be used for "the accommodation and support of the poor of said town... and for no other use or purpose whatever." The bulk of his estate was left to the city (then town) for the construction and upkeep of the asylum and the care of the poor. Dexter's will further called for the town to erect a stone wall around the property, forbade the town to sell Neck Farm, and specified that a town meeting of no less than "forty freemen" should be required for any action concerning the property.

Before Dexter's bequest, Providence had no institution for the care of the poor. Those unable to support themselves due to age or illness were cared for at town expense in private homes by caretakers who bid for the job. A committee formed soon after Dexter's death to oversee the donation, and town meetings from 1824 until the original building's completion in 1828 discussed the construction, operation and rules of the asylum.

In the mid-nineteenth century, as Providence grew, crowding became a problem at the asylum. The opening of Butler Hospital provided a new resource for the mentally ill, and some inmates were transferred there in 1847. In 1849 Thomas M. Burgess, mayor of Providence, called for either a limit on inmates or the construction of new buildings to accommodate the asylum's 190 men and women. The next year, the Board of Aldermen voted to limit inmates to 180. In 1867, the city commissioned "alterations and improvements" costing $120,000, and later sketches show an enlarged main building, but new buildings were not added. By the late 1870's, the inmate population had stabilized at around 100, where it would remain until the asylum's closing.

Living conditions, as depicted in early lists of rules and punishments, work records and daily menus, were hardly desirable by present standards. Visitors were permitted only once every three weeks; male and female inmates were strictly separated; the evening meal consisted of white bread and tea; and those found guilty of drinking, "immoral conduct," "loud talking or disrespectful behavior" or faking illness to avoid work were subject to "confinement in bridewell (a jail cell) for a time not exceeding three days, and of being kept on short allowance of food." An 1843 observer reported one-quarter of the inmates insane, yet medical records reveal no attempt at treating mental illness beyond confinement in the "maniac cells."

Legal wrangles between the city and the asylum began as early as 1872, when part of the stone wall around the Dexter property was knocked down during the widening of Hope Street. The city solicitor finally determined that Providence was not legally required to rebuild the wall. The city did restore the wall, but more conflicts were to come. In the 1920's, with rising real estate values and open space at a premium, city officials first tried to break up the property and sell it for house lots, then suggested making the land a public park. In 1926, the Rhode Island Supreme Court upheld the provisions of Ebenezer Dexter's will, declaring that no part of the property could be sold--much to the disgust of city Alderman Sol S. Bromson, who declared that the city could board the inmates at the Biltmore Hotel for less than it cost to maintain the asylum. The will's stipulation that "forty freemen" be present for any meeting about the asylum was altered in 1940, when the state General Assembly allowed the city council to have all powers originally bestowed upon the freemen.

A 1941 article in the Providence Sunday Journal characterized the asylum as a "well-meaning legacy of a bygone day which has made time stand still." Vegetable farming had been abandoned in the late 1920's, and while dairy farming continued through the '40's, farm revenues were not enough to make the asylum self-supporting. In 1947, the battle to break the will resumed. Lawyers and genealogists searched through old records, trying to determine who had owned "Neck Farm" before Ebenezer Dexter. Could the heirs of this previous owner determine the fate of the property? Could Dexter's heirs? If the asylum was demolished, what would take its place--a housing development, a park? In 1956, Brown University President Barnaby Keeney proposed that the city sell or lease the property to the university for a gym and athletic complex: "If and when the Courts permit the City to dispose of this land, it must honor its obligation to the Dexter Trust by obtaining the best possible income for the support of the poor... the University is in a position to help."

Providence Mayor Walter H. Reynolds hesitated, noting that the land could provide space for as many as 150 new home sites. But in the end the Brown proposal proved the best offer; today the University's athletic complex stands on the former asylum site on Hope Street. In October, 1957, the Dexter Asylum submitted its final report to the city of Providence. Its 129-year history had come to an end.

Bibliography

Proceedings of the Town of Providence relative to the Dexter Donation & Dexter Asylum, with subsequent action thereon, as compiled by the city clerk (pamphlet, compiled 1879)

Bolan, Robert P. The Dexter Asylum (booklet, compiled 1941)

Creech, Margaret D. Three Centuries of Poor Law Administration (University of Chicago, 1936)

Providence City Documents (bound volumes, published annually)

Primary source material in the Records of the Dexter Asylum, Manuscript Collection, Rhode Island Historical Society.

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Scope and content:

The collection consists primarily of business records kept by the management of the Dexter Asylum property. The bulk of the material is in bound volumes and the dates range from 1828-1956, while most of the collection falls between the 1850s to the 1920s. The volumes detail sales of farm products, purchases of groceries and other supplies, cost of repairs, bills owed and paid and other transactions. Boxes of bills and receipts are also included. Records of the farm, although mainly financial, are considered a separate series unless the original volume mixed farm accounts with general accounts of the asylum.

A substantial body of records deals with inmates of the asylum. Bound volumes and index cards list inmates from 1828-1955 and provide basic statistical information; other records covering limited periods of time concentrate on specific activities or areas of inmate life--for example, work records, physicians' records, and permits to leave the asylum.

Other records include correspondence kept by asylum officials (mainly dealing with daily business, such as ordering goods, but sometimes relating to inmates); court transcripts, notes and correspondence dealing with lawsuits; and inventories of asylum property, including furnishings and livestock.

The collection is divided into six series, as follows:

Series 1: Inmates

Subseries 1: Vital Statistics

Subseries 2: Clothing

Subseries 3: Punishment

Subseries 4: Medical

Subseries 5: Permits

Subseries 6: Work Records

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: Lawsuits

Series 4: Inventories

Series 5: Farm Records

Subseries 1: Livestock Records

Subseries 2: General Produce Records

Subseries 3: Milk Accounts

Subseries 4: Vegetable Accounts

Subseries 5: General Farm Accounts

Series 6: Financial Records

Subseries 1: Bills

Subseries 2: Payroll

Subseries 3: Maintenance and Repair Accounts

Subseries 4: Manufacturing Accounts

Subseries 5: Purchases/Expenses

Subseries 6: General Accounts

Series Description

Series 1. Inmates, 1828-1957 (6.5 lin. ft.)

Contains records relating to the admission of inmates into the asylum, their life within the asylum, and their eventual discharge, transferral, or death and burial. These records are often statistical in nature, rather than descriptive. Some admission records include personal data such as occupation, age, race and marital status of inmates and reason for admission (poverty, age, insanity, etc.)

One box in the series contains records of indentures from 1828-1844. Early inmates with "no visible means of support" were indentured to work at the asylum farm in return for room, board and clothing.

Physicians' and hospital records describe illnesses and injuries of inmates and how treated. Other records offer evidence of inmates' daily lives and conditions at the asylum: records of farm and house work performed by inmates, clothing allotted, punishments given for various rule violations, permission given for inmates to leave the asylum for the day.

Registers in the form of bound volumes list inmates from 1828-1955, but some materials cover only certain years; for example, there are medical records from 1854-1906 only, lists of clothing issued from 1847-1863 only, and a record of offenses from 1828-1869 only. There are records of burials from 1918-1932. Work records, more extensive, cover the period from 1889-1943.

Items of interest include a large bound volume, a register of inmates from 1828-1955, which lists names and ages of inmates, their birthplace, former address, and occupation, if known, and the date of their death or discharge. A short section for "Remarks" often provides such cryptic bits of information as "sick with lung trouble and rum" or "left asylum in a taxi." Newspaper clippings are sometimes pasted in the "Remarks" section, as with an abandoned infant discovered by police and sent to the asylum. Another source of information about inmates is a set of index cards, kept from about 1907-1924.

The series is divided into six subseries:

1: Vital Statistics (Admissions, discharges, indentures, etc.)

2. Clothing

3. Punishment (Rules violated and punishments administered)

4. Medical (Records of physicians and hospital)

5. Permits (For day trips outside asylum, including monies given)

6. Work (Daily work records)

The series are organized somewhat by format but primarily in chronological order.

Series 2. Correspondence, 1896-1898; 1922-1927 (.5 lin. ft.)

Contains letterpress copies of letters, mainly written by the superintendent of the asylum. Many relate to business: ordering of provisions, offering farm produce for sale, etc., but some relate to patients and employees. Examples include letters to relatives

of inmates informing them of an inmate's illness or death. The series is arranged in chronological order.

Series 3. Lawsuits, 1915, 1921-1926, 1947-1956 (l lin. ft.)

Includes a bound pamphlet describing the proceedings in the case of Helen O. Campbell vs. Joseph W. Mess (January 1915.) Campbell, a nurse at the asylum, charged that Mess, also a nurse, borrowed $21.10 from her during their employment and refused to repay the money. Papers from 1921-1926 involve an attempt by Providence residents to cut streets through the property. Papers from 1947-1956, including correspondence, bills for legal work and a magazine clipping, detail attempts by the city to break the provisions of the Dexter will; much genealogical information is included as the lawyers attempted to trace all descendants of Ebenezer Dexter. An article from the Brown Alumni Monthly describes the university's attempts to obtain the property for an athletic facility. Arranged in chronological order.

Series 4. Inventories, 1828-1911, 1914-1916, 1919-1928, 1930 (3 lin. ft.)

The asylum kept detailed inventories of both farm and living quarters, and these inventories, in bound volumes, are complete from 1828 through 1930, with the exception of the years 1912-1913 and 1917-1918. The inventories list all goods and estimate the value of each item.

This series includes volumes listing and appraising all property of the Dexter Asylum farm and living quarters, including furniture, cooking utensils, medical supplies, farm equipment and stock. The inventories were usually performed yearly and are arranged chronologically.

Series 5. Farm Records, 1853-1943 (6.5 lin. ft.)

For most of its existence, the Dexter Asylum was a working farm, and the collection includes detailed records of the farm's finances and production. Most of these records are in discrete volumes, separate from the general accounts of the asylum, although some are included with general financial records.

This series contains ledgers, record books and papers dealing specifically with the Dexter Asylum farm. Included are ledgers of sales of milk, vegetables and general produce; listings and descriptions (including pencil sketches and wool samples) of sheep and cattle and records of milk production; and account books showing the farm's expenses and earnings. Some ledgers list only milk sales or only vegetable sales, while others have both.

The series is divided into five subseries:

1. Livestock Records

2. General Produce Records

3. Milk Accounts

4. Vegetable Accounts

5. General Farm Accounts

Series 6. Financial Records, 1828-1949 (9.5 lin. ft.).

Includes all general financial records for the asylum. Some farm records are included in this series, if they are part of a general accounting record. Typical items are daily, weekly or yearly ledgers; records of yearly expenses and earnings; records of purchases (of food and supplies) and expenses for repair and maintenance; employee payroll records; and copies of bills and receipts. Also included are sales records (1828-1854) from a manufacturing business the asylum operated, making junk and oakum rope products used mainly by the shipping industry.

The series is divided into six subseries:

1. Bills

2. Payroll

3. Maintenance and Repair Accounts

4. Manufacturing Accounts

5. Purchases/Expenses

6. General Accounts

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Provenance:

The records of the Dexter Asylum were donated by the Asylum on October 4, 1957, after the asylum closed.

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Processing note:

The Collection was first labeled by Harold Kemble, but no guide was written. Ms. Kulpa labeled the volumes and wrote the guide. Two student volunteers rehoused the collection's volumes in boxes and revised the guide. The collection still needs some processing: many loose papers need to be unfolded and put in buffered folders and clip should be removed. Some material needs to be removed from a metal box. The collection was entered into OCLC in the AMC format.

The following volumes from the Dexter Asylum Records are available on two reels of microfilm in the Library's Reading Room at: Mfilm HV 99 .D 46:

Volume 1. Register of Inmate Admissions Jun 1828-Nov 1868

Box 16, Vol 2. Index to the Register of Inmate Admissions Jun 1828-Nov 1868

Volume 3. Register of Inmates at Dexter Asylum Aug 1828-Sep 1957

- chronological, with limited bio & medical info

Volume 4. Index of Inmates in 1828-1957 Register 1828-1957

Box 16, Vol 5. Register of Inmates May 1848-Jul 1868

- includes notes on admits, discharges, deaths & desertions

Box 16, Vol 6. List of Paupers Admitted 1870-1890

Volume 7. Register of Inmates 1889-1902

- includes punishment records, discharges, & list of

those working for the board

Box 30, Vol 8. Register of Inmates 1912-1938

- includes histories and index

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Inventory:

Notes:

1) Items with a * next to them are oversized items

2) The volumes are stored according to size.

Series l : Inmates

Subseries 1: Vital Statistics

Box 1. Index Cards, Patient information 1907-1924

Box 2. Index Cards, Patient information 1924-1957

Box 3. Indentures 1828-1844

Box 4. Inmate Record Book 1897-1915

Admits and Discharges 1873-1881, 1890-1908

Box 5. Reports 1911-1929, 1949-1956

Box 6. Miscellaneous patient records 1936-1956

Admittance records A-Z 1915-1948

Volume 1. Register of Inmate Admissions Jun 1828-Nov 1868

(Use Microfilm)

Box 16, Vol 2. Index to the Register of Inmate Admissions Jun 1828-Nov 1868

(Use Microfilm)

*Volume 3. Register of Inmates at Dexter Asylum Aug 1828-Sep 1957

- chronological, with limited bio & medical info

(Use Microfilm)

*Volume 4. Index of Inmates in 1828-1957 Register 1828-1957

(Use Microfilm)

Box 16, Vol 5. Register of Inmates May 1848-Jul 1868

- includes notes on admits, discharges, deaths & desertions

(Use Microfilm)

Box 16, Vol 6. List of Paupers Admitted 1870-1890

(Use Microfilm)

Volume 7. Register of Inmates 1889-1902

- includes punishment records, discharges, & list of

those working for the board

(Use Microfilm)

Box 30, Vol 8. Register of Inmates 1912-1938

- includes histories and index

(Use Microfilm)

Box 18, Vol 9. Weekly Report of Inmate Stats May 1849-May 1868