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In June 1890 a Reformatory Home for boys was opened on the North Hill, the Governor was John Sifton, father of Clifford Sifton, and it was known as the Brandon Reformatory, but in the first year, there was only one single resident, a 9-year-old boy sent there for stealing mail. It became apparent that the expensive facility needed a new use, and authorities intimated that insanity was growing faster than juvenile crime.  
 
To accommodate the transfer of an estimated forty persons from the Selkirk Asylum to the Brandon location, alterations were required. Staffs were hired: the Superintendent was Dr. Patterson, a General Physician who was making a special study of Insanity.  
 
The Physician in charge was Dr. Gordon Bell.  
 
The former Governor of the Reformatory was transferred to Provincial Public Buildings, and Institutions as an Inspector. But by the end of 1891 the “House on the Hill” remained unoccupied.  
 
Eventually the Brandon Asylum was opened: a report of 1893 states that amid sub-zero temperatures thirty six unfortunates arrived in Brandon to take up residence in the Asylum quarters.  
 
They had spent the previous night in a snow-marooned train outside of Portage la Prairie.  
 
In an 1896 report by J. W. Sifton, he said that the Asylum contained one hundred and forty patients, half of them from the Territories. The adjoining farm produced an estimated one hundred tons of vegetables, root crops and corn silage.  
 
In 1903 a sixty thousand dollar expansion was completed, and was continued the following year at a further cost of eighty thousand dollars.  
 
This building was completely destroyed by a fire of unknown origin on November 4th 1910.  
 
The Parkland building was built on the site of the destroyed Asylum. In 1911, one hundred and seventy Asylum patients were returned to their Alberta origins in western Canada to be housed in recently prepared quarters at Ponoka.  
 
In 1921 the west half of the Norwood Gardens Building was completed. The Nurses Residence built in 1922 and was occupied in 1923, is the only building protected as a provincial Heritage site.  
 
It houses vintage murals, mosaic tile floors, and detailed woodcarvings. This building arguably has the most heritage significance of any of the main four buildings.  
 
This building overlooks the forested ravine that runs along First Street. The Nurses Residence was closed in 1998: today it is the home of ACC’s Culinary Arts Department.  
 
The Valleyview Building opened in 1925, the Pine Ridge Building in 1934, the east half of Norwood Gardens in 1935, and an extension to the northwest wing of the Parkland Building in 1949.  
 
Names and descriptions change on a regular basis in Mental Health, and so did the name of this centre. At the start it was known as the Brandon Asylum, then it was called the Brandon Hospital for the Insane, then in 1919, the Brandon Hospital for Mental Diseases, and finally in 1972 the Brandon Mental Health Centre, commonly BMHC was used when mentioning it.  
 
There were no graduate nurses working on the wards before 1920, but in 1923 the first Class of seven students graduated from the School of Nursing. Dr. C established this school. Ms. A. Barager was the first School of Psychiatry Nurse west of the Great Lakes, and arguably the whole of Canada.  
 
Note #1: Unfortunately the Artefacts from the Hospital Museum are packed in boxes and stored somewhere away from public view, but the old museum is still available to view on Bill Hillman’s Web Page:  
 
http://www.hillmanweb.com/bmhc/  
 
Note #2: On Wednesday April 14th, 2010 BU announced it is to offer a Masters in Psychiatric Nursing in January 2011. There will have eight full time places. This new program is for Psych Nurses who wish to study a speciality, and to provide a source of BU Faculty recruits, and to promote the advancement of Psychiatric Nursing across Canada.  
 
 
Source: Brandon a City. G. F. Barker.  
 
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p110.html  
 
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/21/brandonasylumfire.shtml