Newington grounds, heating and a proposed infirmary

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Narrative  '.)
retired  from  further  hospital  duty  and  that  we  must  ask  the
General  Assembly  to  let  us  replace  it  with  a  modern  fire-
proof building  of  brick  or  stone.  The  justice  and  timeliness
of  our  decision  will  be  apparent  to  the  members  of  the
General  Assembly  when  they  visit  Undercliff  this  winter,
and  see  for  themselves  the  terrible  fire  hazard  to  which  the
children  in  the  present  infirmary  building  are  now  exposed.
Cedarcrest
Cedarcrest,  the  third  in  point  of  size  of  the  State  Tuber-
culosis Sanatoria,  is  situated  in  the  town  of  Newington,
but  only  a  mile  from  the  Hartford  city  line.  It  has  accom-
modations for  192  patients  and  usually  a  waiting  list  for
the  men's  infirmary.  The  General  Assembly  at  its  last
session  appropriated  thirty-nine  thousand  dollars  for  the
installing  of  a  central  heating  plant  at  Cedarcrest.  The
carrying  out  of  this  great  improvement  as  projected,  gave
us  an  opportunity  to  devise  an  attractive  rearrangement  of
the  roads,  and  to  eliminate  many  of  the  unsightly  poles
and  wires  that  hitherto  had  crossed  and  recrossed  the
grounds.  By  agreement  with  the  electric  light  and  tele-
graph companies  we  have,  wherever  possible,  buried  these
wires  in  the  brick  conduits  for  carrying  the  steam  from
the  central  heating  plant  to  the  various  buildings  of  the
institution.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  the  buildings  at
Cedarcrest  are  of  rather  cheap  wooden  construction,  and
of  a  type  that  we  have  not  used  in  recent  years,  the
splendid  site  of  the  institution  lends  itself  readily  to  every
beautifying  effort,  and  we  hope  soon  to  see  Cedarcrest
vying  in  attractiveness  with  the  best  of  the  State's  sana-
toria. As  a  means  to  this  end,  and  also  to  improve  the
accommodations  for  the  very  sick  patients  as  this  institu-
tion, and  to  abolish  the  waiting  list,  and  to  better  the
morale  of  the  place,  we  propose  to  present  a  request  for
an  appropriation  for  a  new  fireproof  structure  at  Cedarcrest,
that  will  be  a  combination  infirmary  and  administration
building.
During  the  past  two  years,  we  have  moved  the  old
summer  cottage  from  the  recently  purchased  Balf  farm  to
the  original  sanatorium  grounds,  and  made  it  over  into  a
commodious  and  comfortable  residence  for  one  of  the  resi-
dent physicians.
The  central  laundry  located  on  the  grounds  at  Cedar-
crest, continues  to  function  satisfactorily.  It  has  been
found  necessary,  however,  to  replace  some  of  the  wornout
machinery.    Hitherto  we  have  kept  the  horses  of  the  insti-