Restoration of CAMH walls preserves important chapter of patient history

Part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Queen Street Redevelopment Project is the restoration of what remains of the brick walls built by patients of the then Provincial Lunatic Asylum in Toronto. A therapeutic program designed to provide meaningful vocational tasks for patients turned instead into a program that cut operating costs for the institution by forcing them to perform a wide variety of unpaid labour. The construction of the brick-and-mortar walls that surround the facility were part of that program. The inscriptions by patients over more than 150 years can still be found on the faces of the wall’s bricks and stones. Clifford Restoration Limited was awarded the restoration project whose goal is to restore and stabilize the wall into a serviceable condition and remove deterioration factors.

Work continues on restoring a section of the heritage wall that marks part of the eastern boundary of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. It’s part of the CAMH’s Queen Street Redevelopment Project, which aims to integrate the facility with the surrounding neighbourhood. The plaques that mark the wall tell an … Continue reading Restoration of CAMH walls preserves important chapter of patient history