Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Mental Health Centre (First Street, Brandon)

Link to:
Medical Superintendents | Photos & Coordinates | Sources

On a site on the north hill overlooking Brandon, a building known as the Brandon Reformatory for Boys was built in 1890 at a cost of $30,000, on a design by architect Walter Chesterton. It became a source of embarassment to the provincial government due to blatant nepotism in the appointment of J. W. Sifton (father of Attorney General Clifford Sifton) as its Superintendent, and also because it was designed to accommodate 45 young offenders but had a single occupant, nine-year-old Billy Mulligan, overseen by a staff of six.

In early 1891, it was announced that the Reformatory would be converted into a facility for mentally impaired people from Manitoba and the North West Territories. In 1891, it became the Brandon Asylum for the Insane and was renamed the Brandon Hospital for Mental Diseases in 1919. Between 1892 and 1893, the original structure was expanded with an addition designed by Charles Henry Wheeler and built on the west end of the original structure by the Winnipeg construction firm of Rouche and Cass. A second addition, designed by Henry Sandham Griffith, was constructed on the west end of the Wheeler addition between 1903 and 1905.

After a fire in November 1910 destroyed the entire complex, construction began almost immediately on a replacement, designed by provincial architect Samuel Hooper. The massive, three-storey Parkland Building, capable of accommodating nearly 700 patients, was built by Brandon contractors William Bell, ? Clark (Clark Construction Company), and Charles Wesley Hall. It opened in 1912.

Other buildings on the site included a Superintendent’s Residence (1909), morgue (1913), laundry building, five one-storey wood frame cottages for employees, coal house (1914), power house (1912), and stores building. A working farm provided fresh produce.

The 2½-storey Nurses’ Residence, now a provincially-designated historic site, was built between 1920 to 1923 on a design by architects Jordan and Over. It marked a departure from the centre’s earlier structures, which were more imposing and institutional in appearance. The interior is finished with oak woodwork, mosaic tiles, wrought iron staircases, and ornamental plasterwork. Designed to accommodate 75 nurses, it also contained a kitchen, dining room, staff quarters, and a training centre for mental nursing.

A second dormitory, the three-storey Receiving Unit and now the Valleyview Building, was constructed between 1920 and 1924 on a design by Jordan and Over. Opened in January 1925 and intended to house newly arrived patients, it consisted of three blocks connected by corridors. The northernmost block contained staff accommodations and laboratories. The central block contained kitchens and dining rooms on the lower level and an operating room, infirmary, and therapeutic rooms on the upper levels. The southernmost block housed female patients on the east wing and male patients on the west wing.

A third dormitory building, the two-storey Women’s Pavilion (later known as the Pine Ridge Building) for elderly and chronic female patients, designed by Gilbert Parfitt, was built between 1931 and 1932 by the Brandon firm of Epton, Fulcher, and Beresford.

Further expansion occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. A Trades Building, designed by Gilbert Parfitt, was built between 1953 and 1954. New buildings at the farm included a workshop, milk house, pasteurizing house, and horse barn. A six-room Physician’s Residence was built in 1960 and a new laundry was built in 1961. The entire complex was connected to the Brandon sewage system in 1964.

The centenary of the facility in 1991 was recognized by a plaque from the Manitoba Heritage Council and a commemorative monument near the Nurses’ Residence. There are two cemeteries on the grounds, containing the graves of people who died at the facility through the years. Burials between 1898 and 1925 were made in the south cemetery. Those after 1925 occurred in the north cemetery.

The facility was given its final name, the Brandon Mental Health Centre, in 1972. The Valleyview Building closed in 1992 and the rest of the buildings were closed by 1999. The former Nurses’ Residence is now home to the Assiniboine Community College’s Manitoba Institute of Culinary Arts and the College has long-term plans for use of other buildings at the site.

Medical Superintendents / Medical Directors

Period	Superintendent / Director
1891-1894	Gordon Bell (1863-1923)
1894	M. S. Fraser
1894-1900	Niel Blue Gillies (1838-1912)
1900-1903	John James McFadden (1856-1927)
1903-1909	James Johnson Anderson (1851-1912)
1909-1916	John James McFadden (1856-1927)
1916-1918	Harvey Elgin Hicks (1865-1940)
1918-1919	Joseph B. Chambers (1856-1939)
1920-1930	Charles Arthur Baragar (1885-1936)
1930-1942	Thomas Alexander Pincock (1894-1978)
1942-1959	Stuart Duncan Schultz (1892-1974)
1959-1966	Morval Ellis Ryerson Bristow (1900-1985)
1966-1983	Andrew Hain Moyes (1925-1987)
1983-1985	Doreen Moggey
1986-1987	Lori Ann Vogt
1987-1988	Gary Sloan

Assistant Medical Superintendents

Period	Assistant Superintendent
?-1920	Dr. Purdy
1920-1939	Richmond Goulden (1871-1955)
1939-1942	Stuart Duncan Schultz (1892-1974)
1942-1946	George Little
1946-1952	Morval Ellis Ryerson Bristow (1900-1985)
1952-1953	?
1953-1959	Morval Ellis Ryerson Bristow (1900-1985)

Photos & Coordinates

Postcard of the original Brandon Asylum for the Insane, showing the original structure at right, an addition constructed between 1892 and 1893 in the centre, and an addition constructed between 1903 and 1905 at left. The entire complex was destroyed by fire in November 1910. (circa 1910) Source: Jack Stothard The newly constructed Parkland Building (circa 1912) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Brandon - Buildings - Provincial - Brandon Mental Health Centre #14, N14778. Postcard view of the Parkland Building (no date) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2019-0072 Workers in front of the Parkland Building during renovations (no date) Source: Brad Coe, Village of Hartney Postcard view of the Parkland Building (no date) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2015-0080 Postcard view of the Valleyview Building, opened in 1925 and closed in 1992 (no date) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2014-0285 The Pine Ridge Building (1933) Source: Archives of Manitoba, Brandon - Buildings - Provincial - Brandon Mental Health Centre New Unit - Women’s Pavilion Aerial view of the Brandon Mental Hospital, with the Nurses’ Residence at left, Parkland Building in centre, and the Valleyview Building at right (no date) Source: Gordon Goldsborough, 2015-0031 The former Nurses’ Residence (October 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Commemorative monument at N49.86803 W99.93668 near the Nurses’ Residence (October 2012) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Valleyview Building (April 2016) Source: Gordon Goldsborough Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.86891, W99.93544 denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: William Bell (1863-1936)

Memorable Manitobans: Charles Wesley Hall (1866-1945)

The Brandon Asylum Fire of 1910 by Kurtland Refvik
Manitoba History, Number 21, Spring 1991

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Mental Health Centre North Cemetery (Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Brandon Mental Health Centre South Cemetery (Brandon)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Selkirk Mental Health Centre (Manitoba Avenue, Selkirk)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Home for Incurables / Manitoba Development Centre (3rd Street NE, Portage la Prairie)

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Abandoned Manitoba

Manitoba Organization: Assiniboine Community College

Doors Open Brandon

Sources:

“The Brandon Asylum,” Manitoba Free Press, 8 June 1891, page 6.

“Off to Edinburgh,” Manitoba Free Press, 26 April 1894, page 1.

“Complimentary dinner,” Manitoba Free Press, 30 November 1894, page 4.

“Dr. McFadden gets the job,” Brandon Western Sun, 13 September 1900, page 1.

“Brandon Asylum change,” Manitoba Free Press, 2 September 1903, page 1.

“Dr. Anderson resigns,” Manitoba Free Press, 1 November 1909, page 1.

“Dr. M’Fadden to come back to the asylum,” Brandon Weekly Sun, 4 November 1909, page 18.

“Brandon Asylum, home of six hundred insane persons, burned down,” Manitoba Free Press, 5 November 1910, page 1.

“Charles W. Hall,” Brandon Sun, 1 November 1912, page 8.

“Wm. Bell,” Brandon Sun, 7 November 1912, page 15.

“Dr. C. A. Baragar dies in Edmonton hospital Sunday,” Winnipeg Free Press, 9 March 1936, page 5.

Buildings at the Brandon Mental Health Centre by David Butterfield and Randy Rostecki, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch, November 1988.

History of the Brandon Mental Health Centre, 1891-1991 by Kurtland Refvik, BMHC Historical Museum, 1991.

“When Love and Skill Work Together:” Work, Skill and the Occupational Culture of Mental Nurses at the Brandon Hospital for Mental Diseases, 1919-1946 by Christopher P. A. Dooley, MA thesis, University of Manitoba, 1998.

Brandon Mental Health Centre Nurses’ Residence, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch.

Photograph Collection, Brandon Mental Health Centre Archives, S. J. McKee Archives, Brandon University.

We thank Lori Ann Vogt and Terry Warsaw for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough and Tom Mitchell.

Page revised: 4 April 2023

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