PROJECT AND BUILDING OF LA CASTANEDA INSANE ASYLUM

The government of General Porfirio Diaz centered its attention in the modernization of the country with special emphasis in health. Two proj ects were paralelly conceived: the creation of the Mexican General Hos pital and the Mental General Hospital. The report envoyed by Jose Mari a Andrade, in 1864, to Emperor Maximilian, related the deplorable stat e of San Hipolito and La Canoa Hospital, but it was only until 1878, w hen the need to modernize the health institutes was recognized. The ch ief project was from doctor Eduardo Liceaga, member of the Superior Co uncil of Public Health, Miguel Alvarado, one of the first Mexican doct ors to be interested in psychiatry, and doctor Jose Govantes, member o f the San Hipolito Hospital Staff. The first project was made in 1881, in which two types of institutions were considered: the a hospital fo r men and women or the creation of two independent buildings to substi tute the old mental hospitals of the city. The hospital capacity was e stimated in 200 beds, with a maximum of 500. The Commission analyzed t he place where it would be located, and offered the different options in Mexico City. The 1884 project was made by doctor Roman Ramirez, by order of the Major Official M. Fernandez. This project contained the m ost modern concepts for the attention of the mentally ill. The project of 1896 was made by doctor Vicente J. Morales, engineer Luis Leon de la Barra and doctors Samuel Morales Pereyra, Ignacio Vado, Antonio Rom ero and Manuel Alfaro. It described the hospital's capacity, calculate d for 600 patients, the construction of pavilions, the land were it wo uld be located and the patient's classification. The Public Beneficien cy owned the land where the General Mental Hospital would be built. In 1901, Luis Leon de Barra gave a report to the Government Minister, in cluding the necessary elements to conclude the project: the land's top ographic and scale's plans to calculate its cost. The project was exam ined by a commission constituted by Juan Peen del Valle, Miguel Macedo and engineer Antonio Robles Gil. In this document the suggestions of the Manhattan Hospital of New York were included. In 1905, the populat ions of the mental hospitals of Mexico City increased to 204 patients in San Hipolito and 339 in La Canoa's Hospital. The capacity in the Ca staneda Mental Hospital was to be of 1000 beds, wich could be increase d to 1200. The hospital surface fullfilled the requirements establishe d by the Sena's Architects Commission: one construction hectare and th ree for cultivation for each 100 patients. The general plan was divide d in fragmentary pavilions which separated the administration from the different types of patients. The hospital area was divided in differe nce sections for the following types of patients: tranquil, degenerate , epileptic, in observation, furious, medically ill, delinquents, and pensionists or distinguished. The service and the recreational areas w ere analyzed. Finally in 1908, it was decided that the project would b e executed by engineer Porfirio Diaz Jr, as the contractor, and engine er Luis Leon de la Barra as inspector. The total cost was $1,783,337.1 3 mexican pesos. On September, 1910, General Porfirio Diaz, together w ith doctor Eduardo Liceaga, inaugurated the most important psychiatric hospital in Mexico of the first half of the century.