Page 8 - Wayne Dispatch Pages

The history of Eloise continued (part 8)

This is the eighth and final install-
ment on the history of the Wayne
County Poorhouse and Asylum, com-
monly known as Eloise.
After WW2 there began to be
problems with overcrowding and
funding at Eloise as priorities
shifted. The state was still refusing
to take all of its charges, forcing the
county to still house patients that Changing attitudes and the rise of
were lifelong residents. This prob- private insurance were also pushing
lem wasn't rectified until the 1950s patients out of large facilities into
when Northville Psychiatric hospital smaller care homes, group homes,
opened and could finally take the or home care by the family. The so-
burden off the county. cial stigma of having a child or rela-
By the 1950s many of the build- tive with a disability was lightening Eloise along Michigan Avenue after 1974.
ings were also 30-90 years old, and and more and more people were em- pital business too and it was torn shelters and municipalities to deal
didn’t meet modern safety standards bracing taking care of their loved down. Most of the buildings were with. Nobody has a perfect answer or
for patient care, so the oldest were ones themselves. torn down in the early 1980s, with solution, but perhaps we need to
closed and abandoned or torn down. Throughout the 1960s and early the county finally leaving the Kay look back at what our ancestors did.
This included the original asylum 70s patient numbers continued to Beard building in 2016. A shopping Create a properly funded place
building which was built back in the fall as state patients were moved out center was built on the Merriman where homeless (nearly 67% of
1860s. The closing of multiple build- and other patients went to live in pri- corner, and homes and a golf course which have mental illness) receive
ings caused more overcrowding as vate care. Several more buildings occupy most of the old farm fields. shelter, treatment, job training and
there was simply not enough space. were closed and abandoned, and In 2018 the county sold the remain- access to services to help them. This
Financially the county began cutting hundreds of staff laid off. In 1974 a ing buildings and property for $1 to kind of public service has the poten-
Eloise's budget during this time, brand-new patient care tower was a developer, who uses it as a haunted tial to make everyone's lives better if
viewing it as an expense and a bur- built near Merriman Road, called the house. The burden of care for home- properly done, because the way it's
den rather than the important public Reuther building. This was a state-of- less and low-grade mentally ill fell been handled the past 45 years just
service that it was. the art Medicare compliant psychi- into the laps of charities, churches, isn't working.
In 1955 the farm was shut down atric facility with 228 beds that was
because "It lost money", so the insti- meant to be a last-ditch effort to stay
tution had to buy all its own food. in the care game.
The animals were removed and the Many of the buildings along
barns abandoned. In 1962 a new Michigan were abandoned, with
General hospital was built on Merri- most activity at Reuther. In 1977 the
man Road to replace the old 1930s state of Michigan cut off all funding
one, and many Wayne residents have to Eloise, hurting the finances. On
the distinction of being born there. December 1, 1979, Wayne County
In 1966 Medicare came out, cut off all funding to Eloise after 147
which provided federal money to years, leaving the Poorhouse and psy-
take care of many permanent resi- chiatric hospital service. The 5-year-
dents, but it had higher care stan- old Reuther building was sold to the
dards which Eloise couldn't meet. state to become a state facility, which
They did make some Medicare com- it still is today. The General hospital
pliant rooms in the enormous "N" continued for a few years, but even-
building, but these were hardly used. tually the county got out of the hos-

8 · February 2025 · The Wayne Dispatch