The Argus Leader published a large feature on the Mead Building and the rest of the historic Human Services Center campus Sunday.
Today, it published an editorial advocating for preservation of at least some of the buildings.
The Press & Dakotan has covered developments on the campus extensively during the last several years, and it’s good to see media from elsewhere taking an interest in the subject.
Both pieces in the Argus are worth reading.
The Sunday feature can be read here.
This is an excerpt from the Argus Leader editorial:
It’s interesting that many of the buildings were constructed with architectural details in styles ranging from art deco to Italianate and prairie to neo Renaissance. The facility’s first director, Leonard Mead, thought that comfort and beauty would help restore the mental well-being of patients. That differed from other styles of the day, which were institutional in nature and places to warehouse people who were labeled insane.
Mead’s enlightened ideas for the time could be resurrected today. His vision for care and the changes in public acceptance of mental health care over the years could be preserved in a historical display that would be a reminder of the facilities beginnings. That would be a welcome approach.
Read the rest of the editorial here.
An Inland Voyage 