History

Moorehouse

It was a patient lounge, and the funding for it was raised due to the dedicated efforts of the Association of Volunteers of Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. The total cost, estimated at the time of the opening, was $40,000, and local community and businesses were among the donors of the money, collected from fundraising.

Moorehouse deserves special recognition within the history of the hospital because it was a very unique program in Canada. The building was named after Herbert Clayton Moorehouse, a former superintendent, who administrated the institution between 1959 and 1967, before he finally retired. It was officially open on April 20, 1968 by Dr. Moorhouse. It was essentially independent from the hospital, but the institution provided water, heat, and electricity in order to facilitate its services. Until the closure of the institution in 1979, volunteers operated the Moorehouse was twice daily from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and from 7:30 pm until 9:30 pm, every day of the week. Minimum of two volunteers were required for the building to be open.

Inside, volunteers offered tea, coffee, cold drinks, and cookies for the patients, who could also choose from a variety of activities: play cards, listen to radio, watch television, engage in a conversation, or read a book from the Moorehouse's collection. The building was also equipped with a piano, a set of comfortable chairs, and dishwasher. At one single time, there were as many as thirty visiting patients. They were also allowed to receive their visitors there, in comfortable and non-institutional surroundings, which sharply contrasted from the conditions in the hospital.   

It appears that the program was quite successful, but it occasionally suffered due to shortage of people willing to volunteer; the association reported that many people were not willing to provide their time and volunteer due to prejudice and stereotyping of psychiatric patients. A letter to the local newspaper, the Advertiser, entitled "Moorehouse", dated July 13, 1972, and signed by "Just a Volunteer", pleads to "Please help it keep going, it's too nice a project to let it go to waste for lack of help." 

It is not known when the Moorehouse stopped operating as a program for patients. It is possible that it was still open for business after the hospital closed and when an outpatient clinic begun in one of the cottages, as several maps, dating after 1979, reveal that the Moorehouse was still open. Sadly, the building fell into a state of disrepair and it was finally demolished in the early nineties, when Humber College started the renovation of the grounds.