Thoughts by Nolan

I think that this facility was a strange way to hold alot of people thay had absolutely nothing wrong with them they were just people like you and me. They just had the slightest thing wrong with them 

Thoughts by: Travis

I think it's cool that there was 1500 employees working there and that they earned $218,000 a week.

History of Oakdale fact Sheet by the Mural Group

The History Of Oakdale

The names of Oakdale

• Michigan Home for the Feebleminded and Epileptic

• Michigan Home and Training School

• Lapeer State Home and Training School

• Oakdale Center for Developmental Disabilities

Opened:

August 1825

Closed:

October 1991

Center closed because:

The number of residents declined due to the shift of housing patients in group’s homes.

Effect of closing on Community:

• More than six hundred lay off.

• All buildings torn down except 45 (Mott College), 71 (Chatfield), and Woodside, or now Rolland-Warner.

Changes to the Facility:

• September 11, 1895: School Opened

• March 1904: Administration building added

• 1910: Small Pox epidemic

• 1973: Castle torn down after a fire, 71 yr. old

Purpose of facility:

• To house the mentally handicapped, disabled, and orphaned children.

• They often picked children off the streets.

Effect on the Community:

• It brought thousands of residents to Lapeer to be a patient, or an employee.

• It gave work, and help to those who needed it.

Number of people who worked there:

• The facility had 1,100 employees at its highest point in 1950.

Jobs were:

• farming,

• housekeeping,

• cooking

• Nurses, doctors, medical

• Maintenance

• Teachers

• Administration

Amount of people housed there:

• 1895-200

• 1938-3,804

• 1953-4,400

• 1964-4,448

The End of Oakdale:

• 191 acres for a dollar

• Bought by Lapeer

• Left Mott, Chatfield, Cemetery,

old play ground equipment, Dolphin statue, Woodside.

Purchase of the facility

What life was like for residents?


• Dances

• Movies

• Skating

• Baseball

• Picnics

• Parties

• Off-Site work

• School

Number of buildings:

• 115 buildings

• 2 schools

• 2 hospitals

• Laundry Building

• Bakery

• Kitchen

• Cathedral

• Residences

• Nursery

• 38 farm building

• Administration building

Dairy farm

• 225 milking cows

• 1500 chickens that laid eggs

• 100 acre garden

• 600 hogs

• 450 registered Holsteins-most registered in Michigan at the time

• All meat was slaughtered at the Facility’s slaughterhouse

Purchase of the Facility

• The city bought the facility from the state for a dollar (191 acres)

• a non-for-profit restriction to be lifted cost the city $800,000 to the state

• city had to pay $200,000 to $300,000 to clean up asbestos and other contaminants

Buying the facility

The city of lapeer bought the property 191 acres from the state for a dollar, but it had non for profit restriction and in order to lift it, the city had to pay the state 800,000 dollars. Also the city had to pay 200,000 to 300,000 dollars to clean up asbestos and other contaminats.

buildings

At one time there were 115 buildings.

Thoughts by William

I am amazed becuase a factory made a week are 1500 double loafs of bread, 400 dozen donuts, and 700 dozen cookies.

Every Day Life

The residents often had social training through out dances, movies, skating, baseball, picnics and parties. Some were a part of a choir or presented plays. Residents often worked on the facility farms.