The Committee to whom was referred, to purchase a suitable Lot of Land for the erection of a House for the accommodation of maniacs, Report that they have purchased 38 acres of Land, being part of the Estate belonging to Gerard Depeyster at Bloomingdale, at the rate of $246. per acre, payable 25 per cent down, 371/2 per cent on 1st November and 373/4 per cent on 1st February next, with interest.

THOMAS EDDY, Chairman

August 1st, 1815

Whereupon Resolved that the Report of the Committee be accepted, and they are instructed to take the Titles, after P.A.  Jay shall have examined the Records, and be satisfied that the property is free of incumbrance.

APPENDIX V

ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC BY THE GOVERNORS 1821[25]

The Governors of the New-York Hospital have the satisfaction to announce to the public, the completion of the Asylum for the insane; and that it will be open for the reception of patients, from any part of the United States, on the first day of June.

This Asylum is situated on the Bloomingdale road, about seven miles from the City Hall of the city of New-York, and about three hundred yards from the Hudson River.  The building is of hewn free-stone, 211 feet in length, and sixty-feet deep, and is calculated for the accommodation of about two hundred patients.  Its site [Transcriber’s note:  original reads ‘scite’] is elevated, commanding an extensive and delightful view of the Hudson, the East River, and the Bay and Harbour of New-York, and the adjacent country, and is one of the most beautiful and healthy spots on New-York Island.  Attached to the building are about seventy acres of land, a great part of which has been laid out in walks, ornamental grounds, and extensive gardens.

This institution has been established by the bounty of the Legislature of the state of New-York, on the most liberal and enlarged plan, and with the express design to carry into effect that system of management of the insane, happily termed moral treatment, the superior efficacy of which has been demonstrated in several of the Hospitals of Europe, and especially in that admirable establishment of the Society of Friends, called “THE RETREAT,” near York, in England.  This mild and humane mode of treatment, when contrasted with the harsh and cruel usage, and the severe and unnecessary restraint, which have formerly disgraced even the most celebrated lunatic asylums, may be considered as one of the noblest triumphs of pure and enlightened benevolence.  But it is by no means the intention of the governors to rely on moral, to the exclusion of medical treatment.  It is from a judicious combination of both, that the greatest success is to be expected in every attempt to cure or mitigate the disease of insanity.