It is significant that the construction of the hospital on the Eastern
Shore was in keeping with the advanced concepts of the day regarding
the treatment of the mentally ill, notably that patients should be treated
as near to their homes as possible. On May 18, 1915 (fifty years ago
tomorrow) 177 Eastern Shore patients of Spring Grove and Springfield
hospitals were transferred here. Twenty-six others were added from an
almshouse near Cambridge. Twenty-four patients had come here with
the Superintendent in December, 1913, to clean meadows, build roads
and to maintain and operate the farm.

The transfer of patients from the Western Shore hospitals is an
intriguing episode in the history of this hospital. Under the personal
supervision of the Superintendent, they were moved by train to Balti-
more. There they boarded a steamer, with wiring around the railings
for protection. There was music and dancing aboard. They arrived in
Cambridge four hours later without mishap.

In other ways the hospital reflected the tenets and the teachings of
such persons as Dr. Meyer and Dr. William H. Welch who were providing
the leadership in the field of mental health during the early part of this
century. Dr. Charles J. Carey, the first Superintendent, had been an as-
sistant superintendent at Springfield State Hospital, where the open-door
policy had been in existence for some years. Naturally, as many of the
patients as possible were given freedom of the grounds at Eastern Shore.
Many went boating, fishing and crabbing. Those requiring a greater
degree of supervision were taken to a nearby grove for croquet or softball.
Dances were held frequently. What we call today industrial therapy was
practiced widely. Men did farm and garden work; women sewed,
laundered and did house-hold chores. A school for nurses was founded in
1915, and in 1917 its first graduating class, of three women, received
their diplomas.

The hospital went through a period of adversity during the first World
War. The nursing school had to close. Badly needed repairs and main-

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