The Oxford Regional Centre, Oxford Mental Health Centre, or Ontario Hospital - Woodstock operated from 1906 to 1996.
The Oxford Regional Centre was a facility that housed, assessed, and treated developmentally disabled individuals. Over the course of its history, it served as a facility for epileptics, as a treatment centre for tuberculosis, and as a facility for the developmentally disabled. The facility also served as an audio-visual repository for other developmentally disabled facilities in Ontario.
The Oxford Regional Centre began it's administrative history in Gravenhurst, Ontario in 1906 as the Hospital for Epileptics. In 1919 it was renamed the Ontario Hospital, Woodstock.
The epileptic unit was closed in 1967 and in the following year the facility changed its name to the Oxford Mental Health Centre. In April 1973, the Health Centre became exclusively a facility for the mentally retarded and in the following year was renamed the Oxford Regional Centre.The centre was originally administered through the Department of the Provincial Secretary. It was transferred to the Department of Health in 1931. Following 1972, it was administered through the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
The facility typically housed about 700 residents in its heyday. Residents living in the Woodstock shopped at a store filled with a variety of crafts and other articles manufactured by the patients.
The was closed in 1996 and sat abandoned until 2003 when the developer started to tear down the buildings. The last building was torn down in late 2004 for condos.
The developer did save one building - the old steam power plant which now serves as a sales office.
2 comments:
I was there recently and all thats left is the dining room building, which will prob be torn down soon for housing
About a third of the power plant with its huge brick chimney still stand and it is now home to the Sally Creek Golf and Bistro. The central storage building has been saved and is the clubhouse for the Sally Creek residents. On the west side of Hwy 59 north of the bistro the words Ontario Hospital, carved in stone, can be seen in the wall.
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