On July 20th, 1894, a U.S. Post Office was established at the Wayne County House under the name “Eloise.” The real Eloise was the 4-year-old daughter of Freeman B. Dickerson, a Detroit postmaster who contributed to improving conditions in institutions for the poor. Mrs. Eloise Dickerson Davock died in 1982 at the age of 93.

In 1906, Dr. John J. Marker was made Executive Officer of the Eloise Board. He was the first personto occupy the position of General Superintendent, since before this time both the County House and Asylum were operated by seperate administrative organizations and all departments in both were independent of each other.

During this period, the Institution acquired a name which was to remain associated with it for many years. In 1894 the Institution applied to the Federal authorities to establish a United States Post Office on the grounds. Heretofore, all mail, express, and postage frieght for the Hospital was routed to the village of Wayne. In those pre-automobile days, great time was consumed in dispatching carriages down Michigan Avenue for these purposes. The Post Office agreed to the plan and requested the submission of names for the new office. After a series of names had been submitted to Washington; and after all had been found unacceptable for one reason or another, members of the Governing Board submitted the name of Eloise, the four-year-old daughter of Freeman B. Dickerson, the Postmaster of Detroit and the President of the Governing Board, without his knowledge. The name was at once accepted by the Postmaster General; and on July 20, 1894, a U.S Post Office was established on the grounds under the name “Eloise.” The bookkeeper of the Board was appointed Postmaster. The Michigan Central Railroad Company then adopted it as the name of its stationon the grounds; following in suit were the American Express Company and the Detroit, Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor suburban roads. Finally, the word became of such general use that the Board applied it to the total Institution. And so it remained, until 1945, when the Board changed the name of the Institution to the Wayne County General Hospital and Infirmary at Eloise, Michigan.

Mr. Dickerson loaned the Board a picture of his daughter, Eloise, and her St. Bernard companion. The portrait hung in the Board Room in back of the President’s chair for many years; eventually it was returned to the Dickerson family. However, when the new General Hospital building was dedicated in 1962, the portrait was located in an attic storage place of Eloise’s nephew. It was refurbished and loaned permanently to the new Hospital where it hung in the office of the Medical Director.

Mrs. Eloise Dickerson Davock passed away in 1982 at the age of 93.

In 1979 the Post Office was discontinued because of the reduction in the numbers of patients and employees it had serviced, and its functions were assumed by the City of Westland Post Office.

[ 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 18 and 19. ]