Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Date: April 11, 2013 12:55PM
Somewhere I have a picture of this Street Car. Oddly I can't find any online at the moment. Via http://www.abandonedasylum.com/dunning1.html
[i]One of the more interesting facets of Chicago State Hospital was Cook County Car No. 1. From 1918 to 1939, this 60,000-pound interurban type car made weekly trips, carrying mentally ill patients from the Cook County Hospital to Dunning Hospital. For many patients this was their last journey, as many would be warehoused at this hospital for the remainder of their lives.
Cook County Car No. 1 was built in 1918, at the West Shop of the Chicago Surface Lines. The Glowczewski family, who lived on the Northwest Side of Chicago for many years, remembers it, "being painted an ugly dark green with oversized wheels, and it moved like a Sturmorser tank along Irving Park Road." The car had separate sections for the male and female patients. The female patients were closest to the motorman.
Once inside Cook County Car No. 1, one would find sleeping berths, leather reclining chairs and small cabinets. Usually the crew consisted of two attendants, a nurse, and a physician. Unruly or agitated patients were strapped to the beds. Patients who were infirm were removed by wheel chairs and stretchers upon reaching Dunning Hospital. When the car's work was finished, it would return to the old Kedzie station at Kedzie and Van Buren via Irving Park Road to Milwaukee Avenue (Six Corners), to California Avenue to Chicago Avenue, west on Chicago to Kedzie, and then subsequently, to the Kedzie depot.
Two Irish lads regularly piloted the hospital trolley from its inception of service in 1918, to its last run o May 18, 1939. They were motorman Danial O'Brien and conductor Patrick Gibbons. Since it was of no value to the Surface lines, Cook County Car No. 1 was scrapped in late 1939. Starting in 1940, a $17,000 gas bus brought patients from the Cook County Hospital to Chicago State Hospital.[/i]