Fifteenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane for the year 1885 : transmitted to the legislature January 15, 1886.

  • Buffalo State Hospital.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fifteenth annual report of the managers of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane for the year 1885 : transmitted to the legislature January 15, 1886. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    unhealthy condition of the basement of the asylum buildings, and presented a request that the State Engineer should investigate this and report to the Legislature. In accordance with his recommendation an appropriation was made, to be expended under the direction of that officer. In the report of last year reference was made to the progress of this work. We are now able to report that it has been completed to the entire satisfaction of the board, and that it has fully accom¬ plished the intended design. The basements are dry, the floors are smooth and haid, and the unhealthy conditions which formerly existed are entirely removed. The water is kept out of the basement by outside drainage, which has been effected by digging a trench about six feet from the walls of the building, at a depth and on a grade sufficient to remove the water from the foundations. A drain tile with socket joints was laid in the bottom of the trench, which was then filled with broken stone, nine inches in width, to the top of the ground. The walls were puddled to the depth of two or more feet, and the surface sodded upon a grade to conduct the surface water to the diain. This drain has been carried around the whole base-line of the buildings and empties into a ravine in the rear, whence it runs through the farm lands to the Scajaquada creek. The same system of drainage \|Tas employed about the outbuildings of the as\ him. The basement floors were relaid in English Portland cement upon a well-grouted base of four inches. The work was thoroughly done and gives promise of being permanent. An iron tramway, with all the necessary switches, was laid for the cars used in the distribution of food, and a new floor of planed, Hudson Paver blue stone put down in the kitchen, to replace the tiled floor which had been broken up by action of the watei under¬ neath. The tunnel through which the steam pipe runs from the engine- house was also drained in the same manner as the building, and an asphalt walk laid over the top. A tunnel was constructed from the main duct to the kitchen and from the engine-house to the laundry, for the passage of the steam and hot-water pipes, as also for drain¬ age. A sewer was built on Niagara street from Forest to Bird avenue, thus changing the outlet of the asylum sewer from the Sca¬ jaquada creek to the large intercepting sewer of the city. All of the work was done under the immediate supervision of Mr. Thomas Everslied, division engineer of the western division of