APARTMENT SIZE FREEZER

Abandoned Lee County Infirmary, Eldena, Illinois. Built in 1915.

From the Welfare Bulletin, Illinois Department of Public Welfare:
LEE COUNTY INFIRMARY.
(By Morrison H. Vail of Dixon.)
On December 11 the Board of Supervisors of Lee County, Illinois, approved and adopted the plans of Architect Morrison H. Vail for a new County Infirmary building. These plans were prepared after the board's building committee and the architect had carefully studied the needs and had visited the best institutions of this character in the State. This thorough consideration of the subject and a considerable previous experience in similar institutional practise have enabled the architect to design a model building for the purpose. Therefore we are pleased to accept the invitation to present these plans and design for the consideration of the readers of this quarterly and trust that some benefit may result therefrom.
Lee County farm is located near the village of Eldena, about six miles southeast of Dixon the county seat. The county has an area of 738 sq. mi., and a population of about 30,000. The chief endeavor has been to plan for convenience and economy of administration and maintenance, as well as for the health and comfort of the patients.
The building will face south and be in the form of a T with the stem to the front. The stem or central portion will contain the superintendent's quarters and office, while the east wing is for the male patients and the west wing for the female patients, thus separating the two sexes entirely. There will be accommodations for thirty males and twenty females, or fifty patients besides the superintendent's family and servants; but the wings are so arranged that future extensions may be made readily if required.
The building is 162 feet long by 104 feet deep; the front portion being 36 feet wide and the wings 32 feet wide. The first floor of the central portion contains the superintendent's reception room, office, living room, dining room, private kitchen, toilet room and the doctor's office. This living room and dining room are so arranged as to be thrown together for special occasions, such as the County Board's visits, etc., and the doctor's office will also be used as a visitor's room for the patients. To the rear of these rooms is located the general kitchen with the women's dining room to the west and the men's dining room to the east of it. On the second floor of this central portion are the bed rooms of the superintendent at the front, with the servants' rooms behind and the operating room at the rear. On either side of the operating room is a sick ward with adjoining bath and toilet.
On the second floor of each wing are two isolated rooms that will be prepared for insane patients. There will be toilets and baths on each floor of each wing, as well as linen closets, broom closets, slop sinks and soiled clothes chutes to the basement. Each bath room will have individual clean clothes lockers for each patient. The balance of the first and second floors of these wings will be devoted to bedrooms, with seven foot corridors and large sun porches or sitting rooms at each end. Four of the bed rooms are ouble size and can be used for two patients, married couples or sitting rooms as desired.
In connection with the kitchen there will be a refrigerator room, dish pantry, stores pantry and a screened service porch. The kitchen equipment will be very complete and arranged for convenience, including range, steamer, broiler, carving, dishing and cook's tables, pot, vegetable, scrap and wash sinks, tea and coffee percolator, water cooler, cup and glass racks, and roller table for clean dishes. The refrigerator will have a large outside icing chamber and separate apartments for meats, milk and provisions. There will be direct dumb-waiter service from the kitchen to the bakery and to the second floor, convenient to the sick rooms.
On the first floor of the east wing there will be a tuberculosis ward, consisting of two bed rooms, a toilet and a sun porch, that will be entirely isolated from the rest of the building.
The practical and convenient arrangement of the basement is especially noteworthy. The laundry will occupy the main portion of the west wing with a large vegetable, cellar at the extreme end. The laundry equipment is also very complete and the large room affords the maximum of light, fresh air, hanging space and direct communication to the outside clothes yard in the rear. In the east wing will be separate rooms for bakery, cream, meat, storage, canned goods and a general work room, while at the extreme end is a men's smoking room with an adjoining toilet room and a large sleeping room, which will be used for transients or extremely untidy patients. In the front wing will be rooms for merchandise stores, general storage and the well water system. The soft water system, hot water, vaccum cleaner, heating and ventilating plants will be in the large boiler room in the center with a (two-car ca

This building was originally built as the machine shop for the Cornell Steamboat Company that had its headquarters in Roundout.The company dominated the towing on the Hudson, from the 1830s to the mid 20th century.

The Cornell Steamboat Company had a long and colorful history. At its high point it was a dynamic force in the region?s economy. Its decline and final demise was in large measure due to changing economic conditions beyond its control. Railroads made canals obsolete. Changing methods of construction virtually put an end to the demand for common brick. Almost overnight the electric refrigerator ended the demand for natural ice. Fast curing Portland cement made Rosendale cement and Ulster County bluestone unnecessary. The Deeper Hudson project that permitted oceangoing ships to reach Albany was completed in 1930 and ended the towing of grain by barge.

A huge building that i could not capture all of. It was built in 3 pieces the main section in 1875, the center in 1901, and the square addition in 1961