Dunning Insane Asylum


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Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Mdotson ()
Date: April 03, 2013 07:42PM

Potters field, experimental treatments? Does anyone have any information about the Dunning Insane Asylum/Cook County Asylum?

Some additional info: http://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/potters_field/disinters/county_potters.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2013 07:47PM by Mdotson.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Date: April 03, 2013 08:58PM

[b]Thanks for the information. I always wanted to know more about Dunning. I remember some time ago they found human remains there. Also in Lincoln Park found remainds onder La Salle Drive.[/b]

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: matrix2004 ()
Date: April 03, 2013 10:33PM

Is this the same as the Reed Mental Health Center?

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Jeff_Weiner ()
Date: April 04, 2013 02:15AM

matrix2004 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is this the same as the Reed Mental Health Center?

Yes. Dunning became Chicago-Reed.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: tomcat630 ()
Date: April 11, 2013 02:09AM

The facility was named after the community area. Some forget.

I grew up near there. When my brother came home for a visit and saw the then new 'Dunning Shopping Center' in 1989, he laughed and thought it was funny. "How could they name it afer the ..?" But reminded him the area is called Dunning, out to Cumberland Av.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Bill_Baar ()
Date: April 11, 2013 12:49PM

There was a Dunning to offer up his name. Via Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning,_Chicago

[i]Following the Civil War, Andrew Dunning purchased 120 acres just south of the county property to start a nursery and lay the groundwork for a village. He set aside 40 acres for the settlement, but proximity to the insane hospital kept settlers away.

Initially transportation links were poor. Although trains brought employees and commuters from the city, visitors had to walk two and a half miles from the depot to the county farm. After a single three-mile track was extended to the facilities in 1882, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul “crazy train” brought patients, supplies, and medicines. The county built a station, naming it for Dunning.[/i]

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Bill_Baar ()
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]

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Bill_Baar ()
Date: April 11, 2013 12:59PM

I took a tour of Dunning Hospital in the 1970's as part of an Urban Studies High School Summer class at Oak Park River Forest HS. History teacher Tom Ferguson taught it. We took one or two field trips each week throughout Chicago including a tour of Dunning. We visited patients in one of the Cottages and I recall one guy reading my fortune in my palm. The vivid memory though is of the court and watching a woman flipping out (she was sane) when the Judge refused to commit her mildly senile but sane Father. I guess that's all this court did was hear commitment cases. It was a real shock to a 15 yo like me to see this kind of real life.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Modemjunkie ()
Date: April 14, 2013 12:38PM

I went to Bridge elementary school a few blocks away in the 50s. I seem to recall that whenever anyone was missing at Dunning we couldn't go out for recess.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: April 14, 2013 06:40PM

The only remaining buildings left from there are the Chicago Latvian Zion Lutheran Church buildings as they are called now. They are at 6551 West Montrose.

Also around 1990 when they started building the condos, they dug up about 3,300 unmarked graves on the east side of the property. So became the Read Dunning Memorial Park for all those who were buried there. Some 30,000 people were buried on the Duning property over the years.

I wonder how many are still buried not yet discovered?

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: rjmachon ()
Date: May 01, 2013 05:45AM

More info on Dunning,

The story of Dunning, a 'tomb for the living'


http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/story-dunning-tomb-living-106892

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: lindap ()
Date: March 06, 2014 07:22PM

I just had a dream about "Dunning". We used to drive east on Irving Park into the City when I was a kid, and had to pass Dunning. It scared the crap out of me...there were always patients hanging on the fence, staring out into traffic. YIKES! It was like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe book!

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: tomcat630 ()
Date: March 13, 2014 01:02AM

Growing up in Portage Park, 'You are a Dunning' was used as an insult to other kids. Didn't know it was an official community area until 7th grade.

"Dunning Square shopping center" drew laughs from older brother when he revisited area after long time.

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Re: Dunning Insane Asylum
Posted by: Jamie ()
Date: March 28, 2014 08:34PM

When was it torn down?

Echo Limousine - Proudly serving Chicago and the Tri-State area
http://www.echolimousine.com/

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