In April 1929, Dr. Joseph E. Bennett, General Superintendent, died and was replaced by Dr. T. K. Gruber, the Medical Superintendent of the Detroit Recieving Hospital. In the latter part of 1929, the new Psychiatric Hospital, “D” Building (formerly “A”) had been opened; and the Insitutional administrative offices moved to that building. Dr. Gruber continued to report the need for a new Infirmary Building to replace the Fourth County House. Projections of the need for such a building were originated back as early as January, 1927, when the Superintendents called to the attention of the Board of Supervisors the urgent need for an appropriation for the construction of a new hospital building for infirmary patients. In March of that year, the Board of Supervisors concurred to the need and authorized a millage vote of $500,000 at the spring election to take place April 4th. First, consideration for the location for the new building was suggested that it be located between “G” Building and the adjoining building west; but it was discovered that the space was too narrow. Superintendent Bennett then suggested space east of the spur tracks facing Henry Ruff Road.

By the fall of 1927, an architect had submitted a report suggesting three possible sites: (1) On Henry Ruff Road between the railroad tracks on the south creek to the north; (2) On the high ground north of the creek facing Henry Ruff Road; (3) On the railroad tracks south of Michigan Avenue. Unfortunately, by the following April, it was found that the $500,000 bonding proposition, which had been passed by the people, was illegal; therefore, money was not available for construction at the time. Dr. Gruber continued to report the need for a new Infirmary Building capable of housing 9,000 patients at an estimated cost of $11.5 million. The Superintendent stated that the population of the Eloise Infirmary had been growing at about 20 percent a year. The high point of the indigent population in 1930 was 6,374, with another 4,812 being given transient care. Dr. Gruber recommended that the location of the new Infirmary Building be on the north side of the Rouge River bounded on the building site by Henry Ruff Road, Michigan Avenue, Merriman Road and the Rouge River. Among the proposals submitted by competing architects was one plan which suggested the construction of 13 seperate buildings in a semicircle surrounding a central dining and kitchen building and a hospital building together with 14 employee cottages. Fortunately, this same architect had an aerial view of the hospital made in conjunction with his proposals, which gives an excellent idea of the Institution’s physical plant as it existed in 1930.

The Construction of “N” Building

Again, a bonding proposal was submitted in the fall election which was approved. Work began in earnest on the new building: the final site, chosen after much deliberation, was on the high ground north of the Rouge River, midwat between Michigan Avenue and Palmer Road. The building was designed by Nathaniel O. Gould of Detroit. It was to be a single building, two stories high with ample basement, nearly 1,000 feet long facing Merriman Road, and was planned to resemble a double E placed back to back at a distance of some 600 feet, connected by an inverted T. The cross of this T, the center of the building, was to house the administrative quarters with the front entrance on either side. The main body of the T contained the kitchen and storage rooms. To the right and left of the Administrative offices were dormitories on the first and second floors forming the cross of the T and the E at each end. Directly under the office portion were located the cafeteria serving counters; and to the right and left, large dining rooms. The remaining portion of the basement was devoted to day rooms and recreation rooms. In the sub-basement below the cafeteria was a pump room from which the tunnels ran to the farthest corners of the building. The building was originally contructed to hold 2,600 people; but incorporated in the construction was an expansion capacity for over 5,000 people, by adding double wings at each head of the letter E. When the latter was later accomplished, the total floor space under this one roof totaled between 10 and 12 acres, or over 382,443 square feet! The building was constructed in a total of four months, and the material required for the building taxed the capacity of most suppliers. For example, the entire production of one grade of brick from a manufacturer was needed to keep the 100 brick layers on the job supplied; 20,000 bricks a day for three months were sent under this order. The interior walls, made of glazed brick, were composed of 800,000 brick tiles with 150,000 additional brick tiles of special shape. The common brick brought direct from Detroit was used in all unexposed places; 1,020,000 of these bricks were laid in the walls of the building.

To match the color of the brick tile walls, the terrazzo floors of the whole building were composed of yellow verona marble chips imported from Genoa, Italy. In order to obtain the 11,000 bags needed, all marble available in the United States was sent immediately to the job; but this furnished only 4,000 bags. The remaining 7,000 bags were rushed over in special shipments from Genoa, Italy. Gravel for the concrete was supplied by a fleet of 20 trucks traveling back and forth over a distance of 15 miles. More than 10,000 cubic yards of this material were used. Cement was brought by a means of huge trucks and trailers; in all, a total of 57,680 sacks of cement formed the basement of the fireproof concrete structure.

As originally planned, the building was to be capable of housing 2,600 people but, as constructed, could efficiently take care of only 1,500 patients with expansion capabilities to hosue 5,000 patients. During the summer months, the population of the Institution, because of the nature and character of those served, was cut down to 25 percent of the number housed during the winter months. To meet this fluctuating and annually increasing demand, the building was designed in small units – each complete in itself and independent of all other units, except the kitchen unit – and so placed together to form an interval and compact arrangement. Each floor of each dormitory unit was seperated and independent of each other. The final actual cost of the dormitory itself amounted to 28.4 cents per cubic foot.

To accomplish the contruction of this building in so short a time, it was necessary for the general contractor to have most of the trades working simultaneously. In order to do so, the building was started at both ends with seperate crews, each converging toward the center. The building was ready for occupancy just 16 weeks after the construction was started, or three weeks sooner than the contract called for. Included in the building was a three cell jail for unruly inmates. Previously, similar cells had been maintained in a wing of the County House and the Smoking Room Building. Beds were set up immediately; and inside of two weeks, 500 men were using it for sleeping quarters. During the four-month construction, an average of 350 men were employed on the job, with another 350 men needed indirectly to furnish manufactured material.

By November, 1931, the building was in full use. During the economic depressionthat began in 1929, a large percentage of the general population was out of work; thousands of individuals and family units were destitute. By March 17, 1932, four months after “N” Building was constructed and in use, Dr. Gruber requested two new wings in the northeast section for an additional capacity of 780 patients; and an appropriation in the amount of $500,000 was approved. Still later in the year, an addition to the main kitchen was authorized. In December, coffee urns were installed in the kitchen which consisted of a battery of six eight-gallon urns. Each of these six urns discharged into a header and then into a 200-gallon reservior. From the reservior, coffee was piped to the cafeteria counter.

By April of 1933, 7,441 inmates were registered in the infirmary, of which 830 were hospital-ward patients. Fifteen hundred other patients were blind, crippled, or otherwise classified as infirm.

In August 1932, the Outpatient Clinic of the Infirmary Building was organized. Heretofore, the great bulk of the Infirmary patients referred to the General Hospital was seen by the Dental Clinic or the Department of Radiology. However, due to the pressing bead for additional facilities to care for the welfare load of the County, particularly the outlying metro Detroit areas, there was a great need for a medical clinic to serve this specific population. It was placed under immediate supervision of a full-time physician who worked in conjunction with a resident and the visiting staff of the Dr. William J. Seymour Hospital. The services afforded all types of medical care except obstetrics. In the first year of operation there was a total of 8,009 visits to the clinic. In addition to the outpatient activities, another service furnished by the clinic was to ambulatory indigent residents of the open wards of the building. There was a total of 50,982, or a daily average of 212 visits.

In 1935 the Wayne County Library established a branch of its service at Eloise serving primarily the indigent population of the “N” Building. Interestingly, the Library reported that, of all County branches, the Hospital had the highest percentage of non-fiction readers.

In December 1935, physical alterations were made in “N” Building to accomodate a surplus mental patient load; and two years later still further conversions were made to the south half of the second floor to accomodate an additional 400 mental patients. By 1944, Ward N-106 had been completely remodeled for this purpose.

A total of 3,266 patients were assigned to work the kitchens, dining rooms, ward shops, farms, dairy, and maintenance. Most worked four hours daily; some worked as much as six to eight hours. Approximately 76 of the Institution’s service departments were manned in part with patient help. During this time, the term “POGIE” (Poor Old Gentleman in Eloise) came into use referring to the ambulatory indigent male patient worker from “N” Building.

During the later 1930’s and 1940’s, the indigent permanent population of “N” Building ranged from 3,000 to 7,000 with an additional transient census of from 700 to 5,000. The level alternated from a high during the winter months to a low in the summer months when the indigents felt “the call of the road.” As will be pointed out later, in 1939, a new State law took effect and placed the care of the destitute and poor under the authority of a County Welfare Board which, in effect, relieved the County Superintendents of the Poor of this responsibility. Henceforth, admissions to the Infirmary were regulated by the County Welfare Department.

This modus of providing for the indigent continued for 25 years until the adoption of Title XVIII amendment for the Federal Social Security Act on July 1, 1965, which then shifted the burden of providing for the medically indigent to the federal and state levels. Just prior to this act, the state notified the County that it would no longer reimburse the County for the care of patients in this division who were residents of Detroit. Consequently, the Board requested that as many of the Infirmary patients as possible be transferred to private nursing facilities or be discharged. Prior to this, costs of the Infirmary patients were billed to the municipality of the patients’ origin. Henceforth, from July 1, 1964 onward, this cost was to be borne by the county.

[ This information presented in whole from “A History of the Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric, and General Hospital Complex at Eloise, Michigan” by Alvin C. Clark; pages 23-25 and 28. ]