Ceremony
unveils historical marker at Eloise property
Hardly a week
goes by that Westland historian Jo Johnson doesn't receive inquiries by phone
or e-mail about Eloise, a former poorhouse and asylum that became one of the country's
largest public health care facilities.
Eloise sprawled
for 902 acres on both sides of Michigan Avenue between Merriman and Henry Ruff
roads, and it housed 10,000 patients and employed 2,000 workers in the late
1920s.
Although Eloise
closed in the early 1980s, partly due to mental health reforms, anyone who
doubts the interest level in the complex need only perform a simple Google
search online to find page after page of information - from the historically
significant to creepy tales about supposed ghosts of those who died there.
Some fans
believe that every day is Halloween on the Eloise property, so it seems fitting
that a new state historic marker will be unveiled Tuesday - just 15 days before
that scariest of days.
"It's
amazing," Johnson said, referring to the level of interest in Eloise.
The public may
attend a small ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday next to what is now the Kay Beard
Building on the Eloise site, on the north side of Michigan Avenue between
Merriman and Henry Ruff. The building was renamed years ago in honor of the
longest-serving Wayne County Commission member.
Now reduced to
just five buildings - and only two in use for county offices and a homeless
shelter - Eloise once had 75 structures and its own farm, cannery, bakery,
cemetery, employee housing, police and fire departments, and trolley and train
stations.
Even so, few
people wanted to end up there. Depending on the time in history, being sent to
Eloise could mean being poor beyond any semblance of self-sufficiency or being
declared insane.
Eloise doctors
pioneered the use of X-rays for diagnostic purposes, and psychiatric patients
underwent such treatment as electroshock.
The $3,000
needed for the state marker was largely raised by the sale of a book by author
Patricia Ibbotson titled Eloise: Poorhouse, Farm, Asylum and Hospital
1839-1984. Ibbotson worked in nursing at Eloise.
Tuesday's
ceremony will culminate a long process for getting the state marker. Those who
attend may go inside the building for cider and doughnuts after the unveiling.
Johnson said the museum honoring Eloise will be open.
Originally published October 11, 2007