Dix Cottages

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Houses for Healers: Dix Drive Cottages

By Meg Southern

Five humble bungalows now stand between Bull Street and the Babcock building on the campus of the South Carolina State Hospital. All five possess the hallmark overhanging eaves, wide porches, and gable roofs characteristic of the Craftsman bungalow style that was popular in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[1] The buildings’ modern addresses correspond to a 1998 facilities map that documents their location along the narrow roadway known as Dix Drive. A singular brick bungalow, labeled #2, is oriented east and overlooks Bull Street. It features the battered piers traditionally associated with the Craftsman bungalow style. The other four extant homes face south toward Dix Drive and the Mills building. These four bungalows – known as #4, #5, #6, and #7 – have white vinyl siding on all of their elevations.

Dating the original construction of these extant buildings is difficult. Their history is sparsely documented and they survive several generations of residences constructed in the same location on the hospital campus. Throughout the twentieth century, the residences constructed in the area now known as Dix Drive provided comfortable and convenient homes for the South Carolina State Hospital’s physicians and staff. The five extant bungalows are significant as material evidence of the hospital’s historical dual struggle to overcome overcrowding and understaffing. Throughout its history, the hospital endeavored to attract and retain talented and devoted health care providers for the benefit of its patients. In order to achieve this goal, the hospital made continuous efforts to improve its amenities for staff. Bungalows still extant on Dix Drive in 2014 speak to the State Hospital’s – and by extension, the state of South Carolina’s – historic efforts to provide not only adequate but quality mental health care to the public.

The effort to provide hospital staff with on-campus housing long predates the construction of the extant Dix Drive bungalows. The evolution of staff housing on the South Carolina State Hospital site follows concurrent national trends occurring on other states’ institutions. In keeping with the national trend of the early nineteenth century, administrators and physicians at the South Carolina Insane Asylum lived off campus prior to the 1880s. Prior to the construction of singular residences in the early twentieth century, hospital staff lived in the same buildings as their patients, and later in dormitories elsewhere on campus. Only attendants and nurses resided within the walls of hospital wards at this time. The establishment of the nursing school at Columbia in the 1880s stimulated an exponential increase in the number of the hospital’s resident nurses and necessitated additional housing. General increase in the hospital’s population – including nurses, patients, and facilities staff – precipitated new residential construction.[2]

By 1906 the Bull Street campus had gained “several houses occupied by employees.”[3] Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of the early 1910s indicate that medical staff occupied the central portion of the Babcock building, with the institution’s engineer resident in separate frame structures just to the east of Bull Street. In the early 1910s, this was an open area to the north of the Mills building and immediately west of the Babcock building; it later became Dix Drive. Despite the hospital’s significant understaffing, these early residences did not provide adequate housing for the staff. The Regents’ report of 1909 noted the need to expand nurses housing.[4] The Superintendent’s report of 1910 echoed this concern, determining that among the hospital’s most immediate construction needs was a dormitory building for nurses and other employees.[5] George E. Lafaye’s 1914 annual report mentioned structures known as the Superintendent’s House, Dix Cottage, Mr. Bunch’s Residence, and Dr. Thompson’s Residence, all free-standing frame buildings in the area of the hospital campus described above. The Superintendent’s House was specifically described as a frame building in fair condition, but in need of general repairs.[6]

Hospital staff continued to exceed the allotted residential space into 1915, when Lafaye described staff housing in the administrative office of the Babcock building, the superintendent’s home, Dix Cottage, and the treasurer’s domicile. The administration office in the Babcock building contained sleeping spaces for the physicians on its third floor, organized as two suites of apartments. Senior and female physicians occupied these apartments. Each had its own private bathroom, a large sitting room, dining room, kitchen, and pantry for the physicians and interns. The fourth floor of the Babcock building contained bedrooms for the assistant physicians and related officers, and additional rooms for nurses.[7]

To alleviate the pressures of overcrowding in the existing buildings, Dix Cottage was completely renovated for residence by hospital staff by January 1, 1916. Constructed in the open area of campus north of the Mills building and west of the Babcock building before 1915 for infirm white female patients, this two-story frame cottage had been converted into dormitories for the nurses, “in order to provide a quiet home-like place for these nurses to live while off duty.” New bathrooms were installed and a large sleeping porch and sitting room were added. Though Dix Cottage relieved some of the staff overcrowding on the wards, it still did not provide adequate space for all of the nurses, many of whom continued to live among their patients.[8] Lafaye proposed plans to reconstruct many of the existing residential structures in 1918, plans he had realized by the annual report of 1919. The administrative office in the center of the Babcock building was remodeled into executive and medical offices, apartments for physicians, and an amusement hall. Dix Cottage was finally completed as a nurses’ home, and the dairy barn, dairyman’s cottage, and the farmer’s cottage were all redeveloped. The medical director’s, treasurer’s, manager’s residences were all renovated at that time.[9]

Sanborn maps from the early twentieth century indicate the presence of only three, larger frame residences in the area now known as Dix Drive until 1919. An underwriter’s map illustrates a proliferation of residential structures in the northeast area of the campus by 1941, with additional small frame residences to the immediate east of the Babcock building. Though the footprints of the modern Dix Drive bungalows do not appear to match those on the 1941 map, their architectural style and consistent appearance on maps in the following decades suggests these extant bungalows were constructed sometime between 1919 and 1941.[10] Despite the success of the nursing school founded in the late nineteenth century, the hospital’s twentieth-century annual reports document its perennial understaffing. Physicians, nurses, and attendants were particularly difficult to retain in war times, many of them departing Columbia for military service. Construction of fashionable but comfortable bungalows for staff in the area of modern Dix Drive would have provided attractive amenities to the small number of professionals available in 1941. A 1941 facilities map shows eight small frame residences to the immediate east of the Babcock building, and ten small and three larger frame residences in the area immediately north of the Mills Building and west of the Babcock building. The rectangular footprints of five small frame buildings in area now known as Dix Drive roughly match the current dimensions of the extant Dix Drive bungalows. These 1941 structures probably form the core shape of the extant homes, which were altered slightly in later decades.[11]

Throughout the 1940s, annual reports of the State Hospital asserted the need for additional housing for physicians at both the Columbia and State Park campuses. Despite the housing issue at Columbia, Dix Cottage was curiously dismantled and reconstructed for nurses’ housing at the State Park campus.[12] Later attempts to ameliorate the staff housing issue were realized in the 1953 architectural plans of Lafaye, Fair, Lafaye and Associates. Their Project No. 207 included five new houses on the Columbia campus; drawings for both original construction and later alterations indicate these homes were ranch style. All five were constructed in the area now known as Dix Drive, lining the campus’ western border along Bull Street.[13] The five extant bungalows along Dix Drive bungalows probably predate these 1950s ranch-style edifices, but likely formed a small neighborhood with the ranch homes they outlived.

Careful attention to interior fittings in plans for the 1953 ranch style homes indicates the hospital and its affiliates’ conscious efforts to provide comfortable and fashionable residences on the hospital campus of which occupants could be proud. Renovations made in the 1960s made residence here more comfortable through the addition of air conditioning. Dr. Hall’s residence between Dix Drive and Bull Street was expanded to include additional living spaces. Hospital applications to the state legislature for additional funds to expand the superintendents’ and head physicians’ residences at this time cited the State Hospital’s desire to provide housing that would appropriately communicate these professionals’ stature in their field. Concurrent reports of the hospital’s new hires and residency graduates suggest the connection between attractive housing and staff retention.[14]

Evolution of the residential landscape on the Bull Street campus is difficult to trace after the 1960s, as documentary records detailing individual residence construction or destruction are sparse. A 1973 facilities map of the campus reveals that the extant Dix Drive bungalows had by then achieved their current footprints, which changed only slightly since the analogous 1941 facilities map. Small residences still lined the campus border with Bull Street and the eastern edge of Barnwell Street behind Babcock in 1973.[15] As the landscape of the hospital campus evolved to accommodate the long shift from custodial care to outpatient and community care, staff residence on campus became largely obsolete. The long trajectory of staff residence on the hospital campus having reached its end by the 1980s, the Dix Drive bungalows were converted for administrative use rather than residence. Residences along Barnwell Street to the east of Babcock had been demolished by the time of the Department of Mental Health’s 1998 facilities map. The 1953 ranch-style homes along Dix Drive had also been demolished by 1998, leaving only the five bungalows now extant in that area. [16]

The remaining Dix Drive bungalows  – those still extant on the campus – were decommissioned with the rest of the historic Bull Street campus in the early 2000s. Though annual reports consistently indicate understaffing throughout the hospital’s history, they make scarce mention of physicians or staff residence on campus. A paucity of detailed documentation related to physicians and staff residences on campus suggests the hospital’s unflagging commitment to providing for the needs of its patients, often over the needs of its staff. The extant five Dix Drive bungalows are material witness to the hospital’s efforts to attract and maintain skilled staff for the ultimate benefit of the patients in its care. [17]

 

[1] Lancaster, Clay, “The American Bungalow,” The Art Bulletin 40, no. 3 (September 1958): 239 – 253.

[2]Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007);These final Dix Drive bungalows were decommissioned with the rest of the historic Bull Street campus in the early 2000s. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company, “Columbia, 1898 April” (New York: Sanborn Map & Publishing Co., Ltd., April 1898), South Caroliniana Library, http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/SFMAPS/id/771; Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company, “Columbia, 1904 August” (Columbia, South Carolina: Sanborn Map & Publishing Co., Ltd., August 1904), South Caroliniana Library, http://digital.tcl.sc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/SFMAPS/id/3046; J.W. Babcock, Superintendent’s Report (South Carolina State Asylum, 1906), S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[3]Babcock, Superintendent’s Report.

[4]Gooding et al., Report of the Regents, Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, 1909), 8, S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[5]Babcock, J.W., Superintendent’s Report, Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, 1910), S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[6]Lafaye, George E., Exhibit A: Necessary Repairs and Improvements, Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, November 30, 1914), 81, S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[7]Lafaye, George E., Report of Architect, 1915 Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, January 1, 1916), 117, S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[8]Lafaye, 1915.

[9]Lafaye, George E., Report of Architect, 1918 Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, 1918), S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Lafaye, George E., Report of Architect, 1919 Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (SC State Mental Hospital, 1919), S190002, Box 2, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[10]Lafaye, Fair, & Lafaye, Report of Architects, Annual Report of the SC State Mental Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: SC State Mental Hospital, 1941), South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Company, “Columbia, 1919” (New York: Sanborn Map & Publishing Co., Ltd., April 1919), South Carolina Department of Archives and History. See also JWW, “South Carolina State Hospital Columbia, SC Buildings and Grounds” (Columbia, South Carolina, August 1, 1958), S190093, Box 1, Historical research files, c.1900 – 1999, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[11]Unknown, “Hospital Area at Columbia,” September 2, 1941, S190085, Box 1, folder c. 1910 – 1946, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[12]Report of Regents, Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, 1949); Report of Regents, Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, 1948).

[13]Lafaye Associates (firm), “Project Files, Ca. 1957 – 1983,” 1962 1953, Visual materials, South Caroliniana Library; “First Phase of State Hospital Expansion Plan Nearly Ready,” The State: South Carolina, December 7, 1953; Lafaye, Fair, Lafaye & Associates, Report of Architects, Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, 1954), S190002, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; Lafaye, Fair, Lafaye & Associates, Report of Architects, Annual Report of the South Carolina State Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, 1955), S190002, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[14]Lafaye Associates (firm), “Project Files, Ca. 1957 – 1983”; “Proceeds of Note Issues,” May 31, 1963, S190011, Box 1, Permanent Improvements – General folder, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; One Hundred and Fortieth Annual Report South Carolina State Hospital, for the Year Ending June 30, 1963 (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, 1963), S190002, Box 3, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[15]Unknown, “South Carolina Department of Mental Health Columbia Campus Map,” Facilities map, May 1975, Historic Site Files, 2100 Bull Street, SC State Hospital, Babcock Building, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

[16]Kim Campbell, Notes from Second Talk with Mike Mefford, Telephone call, March 26, 2014; Physical Plant Services, “Columbia Campus, Downtown Columbia Campus” (South Carolina Department of Mental Health, August 3, 1998).

[17] Annual reports are silent on staff residency, with the exception of commentary on renovations to Dr. Doskocil’s house, which was damaged by fire in the 1970s.147th Annual Report South Carolina State Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina State Hospital, June 30, 1970), S190002, Box 3, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; 150 Years Healing With Concern 8th Annual Report South Carolina Department of Mental Health (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina Department of Mental Health, June 30, 1971), S190002, Box 3, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; South Carolina Department of Mental Health Annual Report 1975 – 1976 (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina Department of Mental Health, 1976 1975), S190002, Box 3, South Carolina Department of Archives and History; South Carolina Department of Mental Health Annual Report 1977-78 (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina Department of Mental Health, 78 1977), S190002, Box 3, South Carolina Department of Archives and History.