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| Amid
the seemingly modern surroundings of the Seton Industrial Park, one can
not help but to wonder why the area seems to have only recent
development. To the individual only casually familiar with old
Baltimore, the Seton's name may strike a familiar parrallel to Mother
Seton and the Seton High School that has since merged with Archbishop
Keough School. Perhaps more perplexing to the visitor to this
complex is the name of another major street through the modern complex
by the name of Mount Hope Drive. Certainly there must be a story
behind all of this? Indeed there is, and it dates back to at least 1840, when Baltimore was little more than a small village at the basin of the Patapsco with its development largely centered. Despite the early date and small population, there was still a need for Mental Health Care, much of which at the time was being provided by an institution called the Maryland Hospital, which would later go on to become today's Spring Grove. Twas in 1840 that a parting of ways would occur between the Sisters of Charity and the Maryland Hospital, stemming from the Sisters' dissatisfaction with the facility's Board of Directors. The Sisters of Charity would go on to start their own facility at Fayette and Front Streets in a small facility adjoining St. Vincent's Church, and treating seven patients. Very soon afterwards, this facility would prove insufficient for the Sisters, who would move to a new facility on Harford Road outside the city limits of the time. This new hospital would be called Mount St. Vincent. Alas, this property would soon grow insufficient for the needs of the Sisters. In April of 1844, the Reverend Louis-Regis Deloul would purchase the Mt. Hope College Property, which stood in an area roughly bounded by present day North and Park Avenues and Lanvale Street, in the Bolton Hill area. On taking posession of this property, the name was changed to the Mount Hope Institution. At first, the move seemed to be an ideal home for the Sisters in their mission. The College's old Dormitories proved ideal for conversion to house the Institution's patients. But within a few years, this too became overcrowded. Therefore, in the 1850's, as the Sisters of Charity became the Daughters of Charity after the Emmittsburg community joined the French Daughters of Charity of Paris, it was decided to seek an ultimate home for the facility. A 375-acre portion of land was selected that sat between the Liberty and Reisterstown Turnpikes, and was purchased in 1856. This property was known as the Meredith Tract. Construction began on an large new facility, the first wing of which was completed on July 8, 1860, and the Sisters took posession of it. Patients from the old hospital were moved to the new quarters in a prompt matter. The name given to this new facility would be the "Mount Hope Retreat," a moniker that would be incorporated in March of 1870.  From the granite and iron gateway fronting the Reisterstown Turnpike, the Retreat was reached by a long avenue of trees and shrubs that came alongside the Northern Wings of the building. The facility itself consisted of a main building flanked by four extensive wings, and numerous other buildings on the property, most notably a Doctors Cottage on the Northern part of the property, a laundry, work shop, and ice and engine house. Along the Southeast portion of the property was a pleasant lake, which complemented the pleasing landscape of the property quite nicely. The Sisters of Charity and their sucessive hospitals would serve over 10,000 patients from 1840 to 1892, and by 1896, were treating an average of over 600 patients a month. Notable for the operation was a remarkably small percentage of deaths among patients, certainly a mark of pride in a field as difficult as mental health. In 1911, a new chapel was built on the property, with the old chapel becoming the home of large dormitories. In 1926, the hospital was housing 634 patients, both male and female, and was being financed through a combination of funds from the city, counties, state and private patients. Upon reaching its centennial in 1940, the hospital was still clearly proud of its mission and accomplishments. Following World War II, populations in Mental Health facilities swelled, causing overcrowding conditions that were the subject of a brutal expose by the Sunpapers. Despite the poor marks given to several State-operated facilities such as Spring Grove and Crownsville, no mention was made of the Mt. Hope Facilities, leaving one to assume that the administrators there were better able to handle the challenges of this tough period.  In 1946, the Mt. Hope Retreat would be renamed as the Seton Institute in honor of Mother Seton. With this change, the institution became an active treatment and clinical training center. However, its future would grow short as a result in changes in policy toward institutionalization. New drug therapies became available, and community based services would supplant the older approaches to mental health, though the facility was still treating about 300 patients at one time as late as 1969.. Faced with the need for a costly major renovation, the Seton Institute would close its doors in June of 1973, with its outpatient services being moved to St. Agnes Hospital, and other operations being phased out. The land would be auctioned off in parcels, the largest of which would be purchased by the City of Baltimore for its development into a new office park in the early 1980's. The main building would later be demolished, and most traces of the former facility would vanish behind new grading and roadways, and facilities such as the NAACP and the MTA's Northwest Bus Division. However, despite the major redevelopment of the area, some particularly fascinating traces of the old facility do remain for now. With a recent announcement that the New Psalmist Church will be vacating its former digs in Edmondson Village for a new center in the last undeveloped section of the Seton Park by about 2010, the days for these last vestiges of the old institute are certainly numbered. For the moment though, the starkly quiet if somewhat foreboding ruins still stand to tell of how Seton and Mount Hope Drives received their name.
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