In the mental asylum, fresh air and exercise were important elements of moral treatment. Exercise was intended to improve physical health and sleeping habits. "Airing verandas," like these at Dartmouth's Mount Hope Asylum, provided a place for patients to view the outside world. At other institutions they could walk along verandas that ran the entire length of the building. Because they were usually covered with an iron grille or bars, these verandas often gave asylum buildings a forbidding aspect.
The Mount Hope Asylum opened in January 1859 after about fifteen years of agitation for the institution. The campaign had been led by Hugh Bell, a former journalist, preacher and brewer. When he became mayor of Halifax in 1844, he pledged his salary to a special asylum fund. Later he chaired a commission which reported enthusiastically on the subject, but it was several years before plans went ahead. During the period of debate, American reformer Dorothea Dix delivered an impassioned speech to the legislature on behalf of the mentally ill. Her portrait hung in the entrance hall at Mount Hope.
