Located on a government reserve, the land was

terraced and consisted of approximately 150

acres (61 ha).

 

The major buildings included dormitories, single

rooms, dining rooms, and a padded cell.

The Hokitika Gaol, containing 30 cells, was located

on a terrace at Seaview.

 

The Seaview Lighthouse, a Category II registered

Historic Place erected in 1879, was later used as an

observation tower by the hospital

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Seaview Asylum (often: Seaview Lunatic Asylum, Seaview Psychiatric Hospital or Hokitika Lunatic Asylum) was a psychiatric hospital located to the north of Hokitika, in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. Once the town's biggest employer, the hospital was staffed by a superintendent, matron, attendants, and a labourer. A comprehensive history of the hospital, Sitivation 125: A History of Seaview Hospital, Hokitika and West Coast Mental Health Services, was written in 1997 by Warwick Brunton, now an Associate Dean at the University of Otago.

 

Founded in 1872 by the Provincial Government, John Downey was promoted to Superintendent in 1904, and his wife served as matron. In the same year, Dr Duncan MacGregor, Inspector-General of Hospitals and Asylums, authorised the villa hospital pattern of development at Seaview Hospital. Three units were closed in the 1990s, as well as the nursing school in 1992. By 2002, the hospital board sold the asylum to a property developer.

In 1955, Seaview peaked with 549 patients. By 1996, there were 100, and when the facility closed in 2009, it was down to 22.

 

 

          

 

 

From what I can see from documents and articles online - this place has a clean history ..... I have thought a few times now "were they just good at hiding it" ..... What "it" is im not sure, but it just seems a tad strange that nothing bad at all was said about the mental hospials care for its patients.

Ever.

 

"Skae ( a scottish born head inspector of lunatic asylums in New Zealand ) visited the eight asylums in the country and was generally appalled by what he found. They were grossly overcrowded, and he trenchantly criticised all except the Hokitika Lunatic Asylum at Seaview, to which he gave restrained praise.

 

From Speaking with a few locals, the land that the asylum was built on still holds bad blood... In its original state the site was Hokitika jail, and at this place after a Māori gang had been caught, they were tried, executed and buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery next door. Due to the fact that they can not be properly mourned or worshiped by people of their culture - it's still a raw nerve to this day..... ( and again im working on finding more info out on this ..... )