October 2020 lecture presentation for the Wayne Historical Society. A short historical review of the history of the County House later known as Eloise.
When I was a child my mother was in Eloise asylum several times due to what they used to call nervous exhaustion and hysterics. My grandmother would take me and my brother there to visit her. It was horrible, dirty and decaying. Patients were not properly cared for. The sad thing is not much has changed for the underprivileged with mental health problems
Following his return from World War I, my uncle Elmer was admitted to Eloise and spent the rest of his life there until he died. Upon his return from the war he was catatonic, my mother and Evelyn, his sister, visited him but because I was a child I was not allowed.
Turning this last asylum that's now in 2023 into a haunted house, ok I can understand a haunted house, but not one thing has nothing to do with Halloween things. It looks more like they are scaring you with what actually went on or was going on, and what they were doing and going through! In there. It's like ,,,, laughing at what they went through in real life!!! Can I say ,,mocking? And that's not cool!! 😢 They were real people!! May God keep them!!🙏. And bless all to this day and on. Who may have to go through or to a place like this!! Just think...what if you was in there? And no one cares, and no one is listening to you. And they are doing what ever they wanted! Too you! 😞😢😭 I am sorry, don't mean to step on no toes. Those for the haunted house. It's suppose to be for fun! But they are displaying what these people went through.
Very interesting, historical and educational. Our history books never mentioned anything about poor houses. I started learning about poor houses when working on family genealogy in the 1990’s. My dad was alive then and explained poor houses, censuses from the 1800’s that had a column labeled “white slaves”. Things we were never taught about the history books. Loved this video. 🥰👍🏻🙏
I remember driving past Eloise as a child 60 years ago on our way out to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. It always freaked me out. The grounds were expansive and wondered about the ppl behind the vast gated walls
Thank you Tyler Moll and the Wayne Historical Society for the real History of Eloise. Eloise was a large employer for our area. Varying levels of Mental Illness will always be a major Human affliction. Mental illness should always be a number one issue and treating people with respect a big concern for us all. This video was very well done.
It’s time to declare that property a historic place! We can’t let anymore places fade away.. I love learning about historical places. SAVE THE HISTORY so others can learn, and admire the beauty!😍
I’m sorry, unique! Is that property a historic place now, did the turn it into a museum? Mental illness is out of control now, the government needs to take control. Get people off the streets, and in to a facility where they are safe, & cared about!
Too late. They tore it all down in the '80s, I believe. There are still a few buildings left but the ones they tore down? Awesome, huge old world architecture. Just like the rest of the old asylums.
i worked on the grounds crew and in the greenhouse in 75 and 76 and i loved it.most of the patiens were gone by then but there were a few in d building.
My late father, Dr. George M. O'Brien, who was a physician/ surgeon used to have monthly meetings at Eloise when he was connected to the Dept. of Public Health. He passed away in 1985. I recall him speaking of the place. He was very concerned about mental illness and those who were put out on the streets and ignored.
My aunt used to work there as a nurse.She experienced her first dead person taking their. Last breath on the elevator on the way to take a body to the morgue.
Wow, I just found this video. It brings back alot of memories. My grandpa was the Nankin Superintendent (Sherman Bunnell) for 20 years in the 30's and 40's. I grew up with them in Wayne. My aunt, their daughter received a degree in social work and worked at Eloise briefly.
We used to go "ghost hunting" on the Eloise grounds in the early 2000's as teens. At that time only the old broiler room was still up but abandoned. I remember some odd activity and my friend claimed to be "pushed" upstairs and he was alone. 20 years later in 2022 I learn that my papa's birth mom died at Eloise in 1945. She was was only 34 years old.
I am 66 yrs old n grew up in Inkster, then Dearborn Michigan n TOTALLY remember the Eloise Inn Tavern on that corner driving by it for years, though never going there. Wish I would have seen what it was like!!
One of the buildings is an haunted attraction now. Off of Michigan Ave, between Merriman and Henry Ruff. They also have an Pyschiatric hospital that is connected to the Eloise building as well.
growing up one of the ways in witch my family decided to make all us kids, cousins and all keep on the good path instead of causing trouble was our mothers used to tell us if we misbehaved we were going to be put into Eloise. Talk about cruel. We were actually terrified of that place. Sadly my oldest cousin in the family did end up being put there really briefly, but I remember my mother and one of the aunts when they found out went there and basically said hell no. they broke her out of there and I guess had to threaten the staff when they tried to block and bully my mother and aunt. My cousin was not disabled or in need of a hospital or poor farm. She basically was messed up by her ex with PCP being put into salt shakers. Anyway, because of who my mothers family is the staff backed off really quick. I never wanted to see that place and still don't. What they did to a lot of those poor people makes me sick and sad.
Thank you for this interesting presentation. My dad was there when I was only 4. That would have been between about 74-76. I think he was in the new building. According to your presentation, that was only up about 5 years. We later found my dad living on Cass in Detroit in an old run down motel that was soon torn down. After that we never saw him again.
Very interesting. My mom worked for a doctor at Plymouth State Home and Training School in Northville Twp. She would sometimes drive to Eloise to deliver paperwork of some sort. I was very young but remember going in the car with her. This history is fascinating.
Well, growing up in the 60's, my parents often threatened to send me there if I didn't start to act "normal". I think they were half serious. Turns out I am on the autism spectrum!
I remember the general hospital they tore down towards the end of the video, hold memories for me. I was seven years old and needed major surgery, i rmember the doctor, the pediatrician, DR. Gadowski, he was kind to me. Almost died in that place when my intestines burst open after surgery. The children's ward was a fun place, was always getting in trouble the whole six months i was in there. Hanging from the curtain tracks like a monkey lol, among other things. What i didn't like about it was at the end of the day when mom and dad had to leave and i was there looking out the window down the hall. Dad said he was always park where i could see them go to the car. They would always wave up at me and i would wave back and watch them drive away.
This is soooo cool. I grew up around there and I would often ride my bike and just wonder about that place. I always wanted to sneak in but I was scared. This was in the mid eighties..thanks for the upload (super sentimental❤❤)
Interesting how many of the asylums here in the US we’re all kind of ended at the same time frame as all of the asylums in the UK came to an abrupt end
Back when Americans were self sufficient and actually attempted to take care of the populace. Think of the amount of jobs created to build this place and then run it. Regardless what you think of the use for the place it's the fact that something was at least attempted for the society at large. To let these places to simply fall into ruin is a disgraceful waste.
My grandma was in there starting in around 1947. I'm not sure how many years she was there but I know in the '80s, she was in a halfway house. I have no information about her. I'm wondering if there's a way to get any records of her stay at the hospital.
Thank you so much for such a nice documentary and history lesson. I've grown up in Wayne County and this was really interesting. My boyfriend and I are going to the haunted house attraction set up in Eloise tonight and I was interested in the history of the place. Great video!
Thanks for making this! I recently got my hands on a camera that (in theory) was used here. I was looking into the history and this was incredibly helpful!
grandfather had a brother that was in there passed away in 1967 remember as a kid riding in family car once a week seeing the people walking the grounds very sad
That was very interesting even though I don't live in Michigan. Up the road from me is our County home. They used to have a working Farm also. Now they just house people that are not able to afford anything else.
We went wrong when we allowed a majority of these hospitals to close in the late 60's and into the 1970's. The results are evident of what this decision has created when you visit any prison, county and city jails or take a look at 95% of those who live on the streets clearly battling severe, untreated mental illness. These folks belong in hospitals, not on the streets, not in prisons...not being tossed in drug/alcohol rehab centers where they can just walk away...we need the in-stay...sometimes long term hospital care.
I really have no idea why so many people praise Ronald Reagan. He also introduced draconian drug laws for non-violent offenders -- in my state you can rape a child and get less time than first-time drug possession.
Michael, I worked in psych for 25 years. it used to be called psyhatric nursing, slowly and rapidly it became mental health nursing. changed 180 in 25 years. now it's all about me mostly .The mad are left to their own devices and indeed live poorly. I'm out of it now. I miss the mad they were sweet, mad people. They have been replaced by bad people. that is sad. The job is soul destroying if you stay too long now.. You become very jaded.
The process of closing the psychiatric hospitals down didn't end in the 70s. In fact it continued to accelerate through the 80s and 90s. I remember John Engler being a key figure in the budget cutting and closing of the hospitals here in Michigan at the time. Many conservative politicians, including our president at the time, Ronald Reagan, tried to spin the closures as a good thing for the patients, pretending that they were all going to be "mainstreamed" back into society - as if every single one of these patients had someplace to go in the first place. Many of them did not have families who were able to take care of them, even if they tried. There might not have been an adult available to supervise the psychiatric patient all day, because all the adults in the household had to work outside of the home, or because they just didn't have the emotional and financial means to do so. Some did not have any living relatives anymore, or relatives, who had their own mental and/or substance abuse disorders, and were not going to be responsible guardians. Yes, there were some terrible conditions in some of these hospitals, so the other selling point that the conservative politicians used was to point out the flaws in the system. But in reality, the people who were housed in these facilities quite often just ended up on the streets instead. Not an improvement in their conditions by any stretch of the imagination. They could still be taken advantage of on the streets, and now they no longer had a roof over their heads or regular meals either. In Michigan we have lost 90% (NINETY!) of our inpatient psychiatric beds since the 1980s, both adult and pediatric. It is still extremely difficult to find an available inpatient bed for adult psychiatric patients who need one acutely, and it's next to impossible to find one for a child. Usually what happens is the adults are parked in the emergency room for days at a time with social workers trying to find a placement, and parents take their mentally ill children back home and take time off of work to drive them back-and-forth to a day treatment program if they are lucky. I worked at nearby Garden City Osteopathic Hospital back in the 80s when they closed Eloise. The number of mentally ill people and homeless people showing up at our emergency room went up significantly at that point. No matter how much politicians want to pretend that budget cutting is always a good thing, there are just certain services that need to be taken care of at the state and county level. And these psych facilities need to be staffed by people with the proper training, and they need to be paid a wage that makes it worth doing that very difficult job. And that needs to be paid for with tax dollars.
There still is a mental health hospital on the north of the property the tall brown building but there was a lot of torture going on in these places we went from locking them away with torture to letting them roam free with zero attempt to find a middle ground
What they now call trash town because of high drug use and crime. Originally, it was built for our soldiers and families when they returned from the war. The duplexes were new and affordable. They remained low income but very nice homes until early 1980.
awesome video! I go in Eloise any chance I can get(legally). like 15 years ago or so when the Kay beard building had a museum on the first floor, or recently with the "paranormal" tours and haunted houses.
The police and ambulance drives had to remember to take their keys with them or a Pogie would take the cars and ride around with sirens and lights going
I took 2 hits of blotter acid on Halloween night 93' and went to "the tunnels" as we used to call it in high school...it was really bad idea, that place was /is permeated with very unpleasant energy.
@@ChrisKitz24 he didn't say he "saw things"... He said there was bad energy and, yeah, I would trust a guy on acid about that subject more so than one that wasn't on acid...
The hospital next door was wayne co general hosp, i believe. It commonly was for lower income/public bens yrs ago. Surprisingly, it indicates eloise which in the local area is synonymous to mental hospital. That is not the case in the 70s at all, its what i stated above.
I didn't know that area had so much history. I was born in Eloise Michigan. I tried to find Eloise but there was no listing. I'm curious, I want to know my history. Was Eloise a city? I heard at one time it had it's own ZIP code, and from some of the history, I learned that it's Westland now. I live in Wayne Michigan, maybe someone can help me figure out where is Eloise Michigan.
I was doing research as well. My birthday certificate states Eloise Michigan. I can't find the city listed either. I just requested a new BC. I also learned it's now Westland.
I grew up in Livonia, went to Stevenson high school class of 86. I used to go there and explore the tunnels and buildings a lot, spooky place, always gave me the creeps but I couldn't help but go there. 😬
If you didn't hang out in those buildings in the late 80's early 90's, you missed out on all the fun 😉 Still have some old files. I grew up staring at the buildings outside my bedroom window right on Palmer.
@@ravenbaa7989 I protected files. Nobody gave a shit about those files and left them to sit and rot. If you didnt go in there in the early 90's, then your best bet is to sit down n STFU.
@@ravenbaa7989 but technically ypu could say I stole files that belonged to no one administratively. Withput people like me the dumb fucking teenagers would have ruined them all. Only reason the museum (which is an utter joke of a place that tells you bare minimum of the place) even have exhibits like they do. You can still sneak into the back of the grounds and dig up medication glass bottles among many other items that were forgotten with time. Just like everything to do with Eloise. If you cant see it from your bedroom window, and went through ALL parts of the ENTIRE buildings back in the mid 80's when it closed into the early 90's when I went there a few times a week and grew up with Eloise as the view from your childhood bedroom window (I live on the main cross street it is on now, but lived directly across from it while patients were still there then your opinion means absolutely nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.
Pretty sure this is my family line here it would be my great great great grandfather. I was told chains were used on walls and such but removed near the end of the asylums life... a type of liberation. My grandfather arthur bennett is from detroit.
My grandma died in there ,she was only 37 ,wish I could get her files ,I do have her death certificate, she had a brain aneurysm and a tumor, made her act crazy 🤪 where can I get her files ? Does anyone know !
I’m so sorry to hear that, gone too soon for sure. I would search, “Michigan Archives” on Google or go to your local library, whichever one seems to have the most services, or is the largest. I would ask a librarian, the older the better. They are trained to find all kinds of things. I believe they will know right where to look or can ask someone who does. Good luck! 🍀👍 😇
They need to break ground on another Poor House if you’re unemployed or on drugs,Nuts,Loitering,no drive they drive you out to the edge of town lock you in the Poorhouse.
My late Mother Doris VanDecar was the head secretary at Eloise from 1953-1962 she would tell me stories on how some of the patients who were Korean War survivors, Would flirt with her because she was gorgeous. She was there until 1962 when Wayne County General Hospital opened it doors. then she became the head Administrative secretary to the board under Dr Wells until she retired in 1981. She would tell me stories there that would make your hair stand on end. My Grandfather Mathew VanDecar died in Eloise in 1962.
So may I ask, if your mom knew what was going on, why would she put her father in there or her father in-law? What was going on with your grandfather so bad that he had to go there. Don't mean to be nosey, just want to understand..🙏
I think it's called Palmers Field but your right it exsist over 10,000 a lot of the people we will never identify although we do have the means. The historical society posses ""Death Books". The unmarked graves are marked not by name but a number each number is in the book and the book has their name. They haven't located all the graves but I read it has 7,000 some marked with names and over 10,000 "unmarked graves.
@@jasondeaver2117 oh it is? Wow, i dont live very far from there but havent been around there in a while, i remember driving by the assylum and seeing those red lights on in there, ooow creepy
I worked at Walter Reuther connected by the Eloise asylum tunnel in 2017 there is lots of activity here my have was touched by something that wasn’t there I was trapped in an elevator and freezer I would not play around at a haunted house there or would I ever set foot on those grounds again
Great video I have a question though I fly model airplanes with the signal seekers rc club we are on the field directly south of the kay building you can see eloise in the background of my videos. I was wondering what the history of that 200 acre plot of land is
Waittttt wait wait. I did googling, and the old log cabin selling for $2, in today's economy is equivalent to like $88. Yet average pay was like $1 an hour minimum. How does that work?
It's a haunted house, escape room, history tour, and paranormal activity walk through. They sold a lot of the land now there's a strip mall with a Krogers. It's 904 acres there is already housing on the land and has been for quite some time except the cemetery and museum.
I live in Upstate New York. Michigan has a number of county’s, towns and villages with the same name as we do, like Romulus, Ovid, Seneca, Rochester. People that continued the western migration from New York to Michigan reused these names. Annoying.
Thank you so much for this history of Eloise; but please don't desecrate the memories of our loved ones who suffered there by allowing mockery and irreverence; by continuing to offer it as a Halloween destination. Scroll down and read the comments of those who have 'played' there. It's as if they are trampling graves.
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When I was a child my mother was in Eloise asylum several times due to what they used to call nervous exhaustion and hysterics. My grandmother would take me and my brother there to visit her. It was horrible, dirty and decaying. Patients were not properly cared for. The sad thing is not much has changed for the underprivileged with mental health problems
Following his return from World War I, my uncle Elmer was admitted to Eloise and spent the rest of his life there until he died. Upon his return from the war he was catatonic, my mother and Evelyn, his sister, visited him but because I was a child I was not allowed.
Now it's where all the blur haired libs belong
That's a shame his life was ruined so young because of the horrors of war I can only imagine.
@@marniekilbourne608❤❤
I am so sorry what your uncle went through..🙏
Turning this last asylum that's now in 2023 into a haunted house, ok I can understand a haunted house, but not one thing has nothing to do with Halloween things. It looks more like they are scaring you with what actually went on or was going on, and what they were doing and going through! In there. It's like ,,,, laughing at what they went through in real life!!! Can I say ,,mocking? And that's not cool!! 😢 They were real people!! May God keep them!!🙏. And bless all to this day and on. Who may have to go through or to a place like this!! Just think...what if you was in there? And no one cares, and no one is listening to you. And they are doing what ever they wanted! Too you! 😞😢😭 I am sorry, don't mean to step on no toes. Those for the haunted house. It's suppose to be for fun! But they are displaying what these people went through.
Dad, born in 1914, saying: “Don’t go to Hell, don’t go to Jail, and don’t go to the Poor House!”
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Very interesting, historical and educational. Our history books never mentioned anything about poor houses. I started learning about poor houses when working on family genealogy in the 1990’s. My dad was alive then and explained poor houses, censuses from the 1800’s that had a column labeled “white slaves”. Things we were never taught about the history books.
Loved this video. 🥰👍🏻🙏
I remember driving past Eloise as a child 60 years ago on our way out to my Aunt and Uncle’s house. It always freaked me out. The grounds were expansive and wondered about the ppl behind the vast gated walls
Thank you Tyler Moll and the Wayne Historical Society for the real History of Eloise. Eloise was a large employer for our area. Varying levels of Mental Illness will always be a major Human affliction. Mental illness should always be a number one issue and treating people with respect a big concern for us all. This video was very well done.
It’s time to declare that property a historic place! We can’t let anymore places fade away.. I love learning about historical places. SAVE THE HISTORY so others can learn, and admire the beauty!😍
It was a poorhouse and asylum, you might want to rethink your use of the word beautiful ....
They where cool, but people were miss treated!
I’m sorry, unique! Is that property a historic place now, did the turn it into a museum? Mental illness is out of control now, the government needs to take control. Get people off the streets, and in to a facility where they are safe, & cared about!
@@CJPhillips6648yes
Too late. They tore it all down in the '80s, I believe. There are still a few buildings left but the ones they tore down? Awesome, huge old world architecture. Just like the rest of the old asylums.
We need these again for our homeless, drug addicted and dysfunctionaly insane.
That seems to be about half of our population these days.
i worked on the grounds crew and in the greenhouse in 75 and 76 and i loved it.most of the patiens were gone by then but there were a few in d building.
My great grandfather was a nurse here! I grew up very close to Eloise. This is super cool!
My late father, Dr. George M. O'Brien, who was a physician/ surgeon used to have monthly meetings at Eloise when he was connected to the Dept. of Public Health. He passed away in 1985. I recall him speaking of the place. He was very concerned about mental illness and those who were put out on the streets and ignored.
My aunt used to work there as a nurse.She experienced her first dead person taking their. Last breath on the elevator on the way to take a body to the morgue.
Wow, I just found this video. It brings back alot of memories. My grandpa was the Nankin Superintendent (Sherman Bunnell) for 20 years in the 30's and 40's. I grew up with them in Wayne. My aunt, their daughter received a degree in social work and worked at Eloise briefly.
Very interesting! Thanks for putting this together. I grew up at Hannan and Ecorse and we always drove by Eloise and heard different things about it.
We used to go "ghost hunting" on the Eloise grounds in the early 2000's as teens. At that time only the old broiler room was still up but abandoned. I remember some odd activity and my friend claimed to be "pushed" upstairs and he was alone. 20 years later in 2022 I learn that my papa's birth mom died at Eloise in 1945. She was was only 34 years old.
Wonder how
We use to do the same thing in the 80s 👍
I remember on the corner there was a tavern / bar called the Eloise Inn. It is no longer there.
I didn't know that was taken down. That would have been preserved for history.
I am 66 yrs old n grew up in Inkster, then Dearborn Michigan n TOTALLY remember the Eloise Inn Tavern on that corner driving by it for years, though never going there. Wish I would have seen what it was like!!
That is where the “Pogies” went
Drove by here every day. Only lived a few miles away. Fascinating video thank you. We were told it was a TB hospital and mental illness hospital
Honestly we need these now but funded properly
One of the buildings is an haunted attraction now. Off of Michigan Ave, between Merriman and Henry Ruff. They also have an Pyschiatric hospital that is connected to the Eloise building as well.
Did you like it?
I grew up in Garden City, MI. I had a grandmother that was fixed up at Eloise.
growing up one of the ways in witch my family decided to make all us kids, cousins and all keep on the good path instead of causing trouble was our mothers used to tell us if we misbehaved we were going to be put into Eloise. Talk about cruel. We were actually terrified of that place. Sadly my oldest cousin in the family did end up being put there really briefly, but I remember my mother and one of the aunts when they found out went there and basically said hell no. they broke her out of there and I guess had to threaten the staff when they tried to block and bully my mother and aunt. My cousin was not disabled or in need of a hospital or poor farm. She basically was messed up by her ex with PCP being put into salt shakers. Anyway, because of who my mothers family is the staff backed off really quick. I never wanted to see that place and still don't. What they did to a lot of those poor people makes me sick and sad.
Thank you for this interesting presentation. My dad was there when I was only 4. That would have been between about 74-76. I think he was in the new building. According to your presentation, that was only up about 5 years. We later found my dad living on Cass in Detroit in an old run down motel that was soon torn down. After that we never saw him again.
How sad 😢
Very interesting. My mom worked for a doctor at Plymouth State Home and Training School in Northville Twp. She would sometimes drive to Eloise to deliver paperwork of some sort. I was very young but remember going in the car with her. This history is fascinating.
Well, growing up in the 60's, my parents often threatened to send me there if I didn't start to act "normal". I think they were half serious. Turns out I am on the autism spectrum!
Aw, thats mean!
I remember the general hospital they tore down towards the end of the video, hold memories for me. I was seven years old and needed major surgery, i rmember the doctor, the pediatrician, DR. Gadowski, he was kind to me. Almost died in that place when my intestines burst open after surgery. The children's ward was a fun place, was always getting in trouble the whole six months i was in there. Hanging from the curtain tracks like a monkey lol, among other things. What i didn't like about it was at the end of the day when mom and dad had to leave and i was there looking out the window down the hall. Dad said he was always park where i could see them go to the car. They would always wave up at me and i would wave back and watch them drive away.
Was a bad place
This is soooo cool. I grew up around there and I would often ride my bike and just wonder about that place. I always wanted to sneak in but I was scared. This was in the mid eighties..thanks for the upload (super sentimental❤❤)
You're voice telling the story really helps me sleep! Thank you🤗🤗🤗
Interesting how many of the asylums here in the US we’re all kind of ended at the same time frame as all of the asylums in the UK came to an abrupt end
Back when Americans were self sufficient and actually attempted to take care of the populace. Think of the amount of jobs created to build this place and then run it. Regardless what you think of the use for the place it's the fact that something was at least attempted for the society at large. To let these places to simply fall into ruin is a disgraceful waste.
My great grandfather was placed at Eloise when his wife couldn’t care for him anymore. He was treated terribly. Wound up with a broken arm.
We need to reopen it and put all the blue haired liberals in it now
Very interesting! Also lived in the general area, and never knew all that much about it, just some local tales.
My grandma was in there starting in around 1947. I'm not sure how many years she was there but I know in the '80s, she was in a halfway house. I have no information about her. I'm wondering if there's a way to get any records of her stay at the hospital.
You should read the book Annie’s Ghosts.. A man did just that but it took years
Thank you so much for such a nice documentary and history lesson. I've grown up in Wayne County and this was really interesting. My boyfriend and I are going to the haunted house attraction set up in Eloise tonight and I was interested in the history of the place. Great video!
th-cam.com/video/jf9CPEyw98g/w-d-xo.htmlsi=LSQf77lMvb9ew1Yo
Enjoyed...really interesting and well presented content. I had heard of Eloise before by didn't know much....thank you
Depressing yet very informative Tyler
Thanks for making this! I recently got my hands on a camera that (in theory) was used here. I was looking into the history and this was incredibly helpful!
Wow, incredibly rare photos and info.🔥🔥🔥
grandfather had a brother that was in there passed away in 1967 remember as a kid riding in family car once a week seeing the people walking the grounds very sad
That was very interesting even though I don't live in Michigan. Up the road from me is our County home. They used to have a working Farm also. Now they just house people that are not able to afford anything else.
That's good that they are helping people
My great uncle, Edward Zakrewski, died there in 1927. I have his death certificate.
You didn't mention the graveyard with the stones with numbers on them to mark the graves
We went wrong when we allowed a majority of these hospitals to close in the late 60's and into the 1970's. The results are evident of what this decision has created when you visit any prison, county and city jails or take a look at 95% of those who live on the streets clearly battling severe, untreated mental illness. These folks belong in hospitals, not on the streets, not in prisons...not being tossed in drug/alcohol rehab centers where they can just walk away...we need the in-stay...sometimes long term hospital care.
I really have no idea why so many people praise Ronald Reagan. He also introduced draconian drug laws for non-violent offenders -- in my state you can rape a child and get less time than first-time drug possession.
Michael, I worked in psych for 25 years. it used to be called psyhatric nursing, slowly and rapidly it became mental health nursing. changed 180 in 25 years.
now it's all about me mostly .The mad are left to their own devices and indeed live poorly. I'm out of it now. I miss the mad they were sweet, mad people. They have been replaced by bad people. that is sad. The job is soul destroying if you stay too long now.. You become very jaded.
Ok but to be treated so horribly because they have a mental illness?
The process of closing the psychiatric hospitals down didn't end in the 70s. In fact it continued to accelerate through the 80s and 90s. I remember John Engler being a key figure in the budget cutting and closing of the hospitals here in Michigan at the time. Many conservative politicians, including our president at the time, Ronald Reagan, tried to spin the closures as a good thing for the patients, pretending that they were all going to be "mainstreamed" back into society - as if every single one of these patients had someplace to go in the first place.
Many of them did not have families who were able to take care of them, even if they tried. There might not have been an adult available to supervise the psychiatric patient all day, because all the adults in the household had to work outside of the home, or because they just didn't have the emotional and financial means to do so. Some did not have any living relatives anymore, or relatives, who had their own mental and/or substance abuse disorders, and were not going to be responsible guardians.
Yes, there were some terrible conditions in some of these hospitals, so the other selling point that the conservative politicians used was to point out the flaws in the system. But in reality, the people who were housed in these facilities quite often just ended up on the streets instead. Not an improvement in their conditions by any stretch of the imagination. They could still be taken advantage of on the streets, and now they no longer had a roof over their heads or regular meals either.
In Michigan we have lost 90% (NINETY!) of our inpatient psychiatric beds since the 1980s, both adult and pediatric. It is still extremely difficult to find an available inpatient bed for adult psychiatric patients who need one acutely, and it's next to impossible to find one for a child. Usually what happens is the adults are parked in the emergency room for days at a time with social workers trying to find a placement, and parents take their mentally ill children back home and take time off of work to drive them back-and-forth to a day treatment program if they are lucky.
I worked at nearby Garden City Osteopathic Hospital back in the 80s when they closed Eloise. The number of mentally ill people and homeless people showing up at our emergency room went up significantly at that point.
No matter how much politicians want to pretend that budget cutting is always a good thing, there are just certain services that need to be taken care of at the state and county level. And these psych facilities need to be staffed by people with the proper training, and they need to be paid a wage that makes it worth doing that very difficult job. And that needs to be paid for with tax dollars.
There still is a mental health hospital on the north of the property the tall brown building but there was a lot of torture going on in these places we went from locking them away with torture to letting them roam free with zero attempt to find a middle ground
HIPPA has only been around since 1998. It was patient - doctor confidentiality prior, just no law.
Thank you, this was done well. I enjoyed it immensely.
Prices are crazy high there, for apts, but,creepy and nasty there. Staff use to treat patients bad there!
I grew up not too far from here and driving by at night was creepy bcuz the buildings were empty but they had red lights in the hallways
My great aunt was a nurse there.
I briefly researched this before but its interesting that it was built pre and post civil war.
What they now call trash town because of high drug use and crime. Originally, it was built for our soldiers and families when they returned from the war. The duplexes were new and affordable. They remained low income but very nice homes until early 1980.
awesome video! I go in Eloise any chance I can get(legally). like 15 years ago or so when the Kay beard building had a museum on the first floor, or recently with the "paranormal" tours and haunted houses.
Excellent overview and excellent photos.
Very nice presentation, Tyler!
In the 60’s I worked in the general hospital’s pediatric clinic and emergency. I hate to say that once I was one of the only two RNs working that day.
The police and ambulance drives had to remember to take their keys with them or a Pogie would take the cars and ride around with sirens and lights going
Dickerson is the name of one of the Wayne county prisons in the area too.
My grandpa was in Eloise and Northville.
I grew up near there I was told my dad's first wife was there for some time
I took 2 hits of blotter acid on Halloween night 93' and went to "the tunnels" as we used to call it in high school...it was really bad idea, that place was /is permeated with very unpleasant energy.
Says the dude on acid 🤣, I’m sure you saw “things”
What high school did you go to?
@@ChrisKitz24 he didn't say he "saw things"... He said there was bad energy and, yeah, I would trust a guy on acid about that subject more so than one that wasn't on acid...
We used to go up there all the time no biggie
High im troy mclure youve heard of me on such shows as "walking around the in the 90s on acid"
The hospital next door was wayne co general hosp, i believe. It commonly was for lower income/public bens yrs ago. Surprisingly, it indicates eloise which in the local area is synonymous to mental hospital. That is not the case in the 70s at all, its what i stated above.
Eloise was it's own city so the hospital was eloise hospital
Really good doc thank u very interesting and a lot of info
I didn't know that area had so much history. I was born in Eloise Michigan. I tried to find Eloise but there was no listing. I'm curious, I want to know my history. Was Eloise a city? I heard at one time it had it's own ZIP code, and from some of the history, I learned that it's Westland now. I live in Wayne Michigan, maybe someone can help me figure out where is Eloise Michigan.
Some places are best forgotten.
Go to the Westland historical society. They have an Eloise museum and tons of info and maps.
Did you even watch this video? It explains, in great detail, what and where Eloise was.
Igu you bro it’s on Michigan ave but now they have a fence surrounding it but it’s right next to a Kroger on Michigan Ave and Merriman road
I was doing research as well. My birthday certificate states Eloise Michigan. I can't find the city listed either. I just requested a new BC. I also learned it's now Westland.
Me and my friends used to sneak in there in the 1990s, soooooo cool.
I grew up in Livonia, went to Stevenson high school class of 86. I used to go there and explore the tunnels and buildings a lot, spooky place, always gave me the creeps but I couldn't help but go there. 😬
If you didn't hang out in those buildings in the late 80's early 90's, you missed out on all the fun 😉 Still have some old files. I grew up staring at the buildings outside my bedroom window right on Palmer.
Hope u didn’t steal files
@@ravenbaa7989 I protected files. Nobody gave a shit about those files and left them to sit and rot. If you didnt go in there in the early 90's, then your best bet is to sit down n STFU.
@@ravenbaa7989 but technically ypu could say I stole files that belonged to no one administratively. Withput people like me the dumb fucking teenagers would have ruined them all. Only reason the museum (which is an utter joke of a place that tells you bare minimum of the place) even have exhibits like they do. You can still sneak into the back of the grounds and dig up medication glass bottles among many other items that were forgotten with time. Just like everything to do with Eloise. If you cant see it from your bedroom window, and went through ALL parts of the ENTIRE buildings back in the mid 80's when it closed into the early 90's when I went there a few times a week and grew up with Eloise as the view from your childhood bedroom window (I live on the main cross street it is on now, but lived directly across from it while patients were still there then your opinion means absolutely nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.
@@jenbingham0914 I say what i want
There are people on this comment section looking for files of their relatives. Scroll through.
There was close to 9000 people living there at one point!
Pretty sure this is my family line here it would be my great great great grandfather. I was told chains were used on walls and such but removed near the end of the asylums life... a type of liberation. My grandfather arthur bennett is from detroit.
My grandma died in there ,she was only 37 ,wish I could get her files ,I do have her death certificate, she had a brain aneurysm and a tumor, made her act crazy 🤪 where can I get her files ? Does anyone know !
I’m so sorry to hear that, gone too soon for sure. I would search, “Michigan Archives” on Google or go to your local library, whichever one seems to have the most services, or is the largest. I would ask a librarian, the older the better. They are trained to find all kinds of things. I believe they will know right where to look or can ask someone who does. Good luck! 🍀👍 😇
I am looking for information as well, great grandfather died there in 1948, the last year the buried on site. Wishing you luck.
I was born in the older hospital, my mom thinks. It was dark when they went there, but she said it was an old building.
My wife was born there
They need to break ground on another Poor House if you’re unemployed or on drugs,Nuts,Loitering,no drive they drive you out to the edge of town lock you in the Poorhouse.
Very historically interesting. Thank you
How were they producing the electricity in the electric plant building?
Do you have any photos of the train on the property, when the rail was still active? Thank you
My late Mother Doris VanDecar was the head secretary at Eloise from 1953-1962 she would tell me stories on how some of the patients who were Korean War survivors, Would flirt with her because she was gorgeous. She was there until 1962 when Wayne County General Hospital opened it doors. then she became the head Administrative secretary to the board under Dr Wells until she retired in 1981. She would tell me stories there that would make your hair stand on end. My Grandfather Mathew VanDecar died in Eloise in 1962.
Any relation to Allen Vandecar from Belleville?
@@bradrock7731 Nope.
So may I ask, if your mom knew what was going on, why would she put her father in there or her father in-law? What was going on with your grandfather so bad that he had to go there. Don't mean to be nosey, just want to understand..🙏
I re-read your story again, I see that you said, some had come from the war. Is that why your relative was put In there, due to him being in the war?
@@tonyasilver9072 That was my Grandfather my Dads Father.No he wasn't in the war. He just went crazy senile in his old age.
Also there is a cemetary across the street, i assume alot of patients r buried there
I think it's called Palmers Field but your right it exsist over 10,000 a lot of the people we will never identify although we do have the means. The historical society posses ""Death Books". The unmarked graves are marked not by name but a number each number is in the book and the book has their name. They haven't located all the graves but I read it has 7,000 some marked with names and over 10,000 "unmarked graves.
They dug them all up and the property is for sale now
@@jasondeaver2117 oh it is? Wow, i dont live very far from there but havent been around there in a while, i remember driving by the assylum and seeing those red lights on in there, ooow creepy
I worked at Walter Reuther connected by the Eloise asylum tunnel in 2017 there is lots of activity here my have was touched by something that wasn’t there I was trapped in an elevator and freezer I would not play around at a haunted house there or would I ever set foot on those grounds again
14:46 u can see people hanging out of the window
nice fact about the x ray machine.
Nice pfp
Great video I have a question though
I fly model airplanes with the signal seekers rc club we are on the field directly south of the kay building you can see eloise in the background of my videos. I was wondering what the history of that 200 acre plot of land is
That land south of Michigan was the farm fields, animal pens, and the Potters field over on the east side.
@@waynehistoricalsociety4106 thanks
Great job !!! Thank you !
I’m watching the movie now
The movie has almost nothing in common with the real place, they just used the name.
Great video
My boyfriend's grandma, worked in the laundry room.
Yes the lake is on the other side of Michigan ave
Waittttt wait wait. I did googling, and the old log cabin selling for $2, in today's economy is equivalent to like $88. Yet average pay was like $1 an hour minimum. How does that work?
No clue
@@Average_3008_worker glad that got sorted out
Make Asylums Great Again…
Interesting. Thank you.
Thank you, very interesting
My aunt worked there for years
I wonder if it the same place in the film Eloise.
It is
Thank you...
They need to bring back mental hospitals that way won't be so many people in jail
When are they turning it into unaffordable housing?
It's a haunted house, escape room, history tour, and paranormal activity walk through. They sold a lot of the land now there's a strip mall with a Krogers. It's 904 acres there is already housing on the land and has been for quite some time except the cemetery and museum.
I live in Upstate New York. Michigan has a number of county’s, towns and villages with the same name as we do, like Romulus, Ovid, Seneca, Rochester. People that continued the western migration from New York to Michigan reused these names. Annoying.
My cousin was born in there
My mother was born here
Did this place turn into Walter Reuther?
The Reuther building is the one building still going as a care facility
I hate that a building with so much history has been turned into a tacky halloween decoration
Keep that motor
We need asylums again. There is way too many people with issues and letting them live on there own isn't working
Thank you so much for this history of Eloise; but please don't desecrate the memories of our loved ones who suffered there by allowing mockery and irreverence; by continuing to offer it as a Halloween destination. Scroll down and read the comments of those who have 'played' there. It's as if they are trampling graves.
I went it was good not too scary
Idk, I dont think exploring the grounds is an act of desecration or mockery.
😁