Page 14 - Wayne Dispatch Pages

The history of Eloise continued (part 4)

This is part four of a multi-part
complete history of the Wayne
County Poorhouse and Asylum, com-
monly known as Eloise. As we go to-
wards the turn of the century Eloise
starts to grow into more and more of
its own city. In 1893 "Lake Eloise"
was dug on the south side of Michi-
gan Avenue between the road and the
railroad tracks. This lake is still books about early experiments in
there if you catch a glimpse between Germany and made a machine that
the trees that have grown up around filled 3 rooms, but it worked, and
it. It was used to house drinking you could see inside the human body
water for the County House as they for the first time. The X-Ray machine
had a hard time up until then to at Eloise is arguably the first one in
keep a steady water supply. Wells on the US and it was instantly a god-
site regularly ran dry, as did the send, with doctors in Detroit sending "Lake Eloise" and the remodeled Asylum
Rouge at the time, so they dug a well patients to Eloise to diagnose frac- shacks, which were used until tuber- began using radium to treat skin can-
over 200 feet deep and pumped the tures. Many of the early tubes from culosis subsided in the 1920s. It was cer and tumors, a technique pio-
water into this "Lake". It had a dou- this machine are at the Detroit His- believed at the time that open air neered there and still in use today.
ble advantage as in the winter they torical Museum. treatments and breathing fresh cold There was talk of establishing a can-
could cut the ice from the lake and In 1899 the old asylum building air was good for the patient, but cer hospital on site but plans never
store it in their ice houses to use for was remodeled, several barns built most who ended up at Eloise were materialized.
refrigeration. In 1895 they built a or improved, and in 1905 an indus- the poor and those in the advanced During this time Eloise had its
large industrial laundry to wash the trial bakery was built to make bread stages of the disease. own Railroad and Streetcar stops,
facility's clothing and bedding. for the growing community. In 1903 Eloise also had a pesthouse, water, sewer and power supplies,
By 1896 the chief bookkeeper there was a major tuberculosis out- which is an isolation house for those bakery, laundry, post office, store,
Stanislas Keenan began tinkering break in Detroit and tents were with smallpox. It is said it was only farm and police and fire depart-
and experimenting with electrical erected on the County House lawns used two or three times, as smallpox ments. It truly was a self-sufficient
equipment and built a prototype X- to treat TB patients. In 1909 the wasn't a serious concern around city. Follow along next month as we
Ray Machine. He had been reading tents were replaced with wooden here. Around 1910 doctors at Eloise go into the 20s.

14 · October 2024 · The Wayne Dispatch