Whitby Psychiatric Hospital, also known as Whitby Psych, Ontario Hospital for the Insane, Ontario Hospital, Whitby, or OHW, is a mental health facility located in

Whitby, Ontario Whitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Ajax and west of Oshawa, on the north shore of Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region. It had a population of 138,501 at the 2021 census. It ...

. A modern hospital replaced the cottage campus in 1996. The hospital later renamed to

Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) is a public hospital located in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, providing a range of specialized assessment and treatment services to those living with complex and serious mental illness. ...

, which operates on the same site.

History

In 1911, the Government of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

announced that a new

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...

would be built to replace a similar facility in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and a site on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

in Whitby was selected the following year. Whitby was chosen due its relative proximity to Toronto and for cheap power and water provided by local utilities. Most of the buildings of the new Ontario Hospital for the Insane were constructed from 1913 to 1916. Upon completion, the site was taken over by the Government of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

to serve as a military convalescent hospital for soldiers wounded in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The facility was returned to the Ontario government in 1919. The hospital was considered a model of mental health care for its era. Patients were housed in a cottage setting in an attempt to provide a home-like atmosphere to those undergoing treatment. The lakeside fresh-air environment was also seen as beneficial, as was the attached hospital farm. The farm was intended to make the facility self-sufficient in meat, milk and vegetables. It was operated until 1969. A nursing school was operated on the site from 1920 to 1972, when the responsibility for nursing training was transferred to Ontario's colleges. At its peak, the hospital was home to 1,650 patients. However, starting in the 1950s, new advancements in medication, therapy and care enabled a greater degree of community care. In 1968, the name of the facility was changed to the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital. As more patients were discharged into community settings, the number of in-patients dropped from 1,000 to 504 between 1970 and 1977. Over the years, the presence of the facility also had considerable effect on the Town of Whitby. Its original construction brought many tradespeople to the town, and until the 1960s, it was the largest employer in the municipality. In 1979, provincial studies indicated that the facility should be rebuilt. Construction on the new hospital began several years later in 1993, and was officially opened as the Whitby Mental Health Centre in 1996. Many of the old buildings remained on the site until 2005 and 2006 when most were finally torn down. Their condition had deteriorated over the years and they were a popular destination for

urban explorers Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...

. Over the years, the area immediately adjacent to the hospital site has been developed and local residents complained about unsightly and unsafe buildings. Canadian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band Billy Talent shot their music video for Try Honesty in one of the old buildings in 2003, before they were torn down in 2005–6.

References

* Winter, Brian. "Whitby A Leader In Mental Health Care For 80 Years." ''Chronicles of a County Town: Whitby Past and Present''. 1999. . {{authority control Psychiatric hospitals in Ontario Hospitals in the Regional Municipality of Durham Hospital buildings completed in 1916 Hospital buildings completed in 1970 Hospitals established in 1911 Buildings and structures in Whitby, Ontario 1911 establishments in Ontario 1995 disestablishments in Ontario