In 1841, two years after the legislature of Upper Canada authorized the construction of an Asylum for the reception of Insane and Lunatic persons, a temporary asylum was established in the old Toronto jail. When the permanent Provincial Lunatic Asylum, shown here, opened in 1850, it was the largest building in the province. Later known as the Toronto Asylum, or by its address, 999 Queen, it stood until 1975.
Designed by John G. Howard, the building incorporated the most advanced ventilation, heating and plumbing features. The establishment of this mental hospital, at least in its early years, was considered a great reform, attesting to the charitable character of the community. The visitors in this 1870 illustration were not viewing the asylum in horror or as ghoulish voyeurs, but rather with civic pride. For the same reason, such institutions were not hidden away far from the centres of population. They were usually located on the edge of a city, remote enough to protect inmates from the excitement of urban life but close enough to give them, in the words of one administrator, "constant proof that they are in a world of hope, and among beings who are engaged in the every day business of life."
