The Yankton County Historical Society is in the process of renovating one of Yankton’s historical buildings, the Mead Building on the former Human Services Center campus.

When the renovations are complete the building will house the society’s immense collection of Yankton’s history and the Dakota Territorial Museum.

The project, under the supervision of the YCHS board of directors and museum director Crystal Nelson, is a big undertaking and has provided those involved with a unique perspective of Yankton’s history.

The Mead Building, which was the women’s dormitory of HSC was built in 1909. The building itself is inextricably tied to Dr. Leonard C. Mead, who served as superintendent of the care facility for some 27 years and was the mastermind behind the building’s design.

“Dr. Mead was a forward thinker,” Nelson said. “He believed in surrounding patients with beauty.”

Dr. Mead was not only a doctor, but also a teacher, engineer, architect, business professional and artist.

Under his management, he advanced the progressive notion that residents with mental illness were patients, not criminals, and deserved a home among ideal surroundings and nature, which would soothe and promote healing. This attitude was reflected in design of the grounds, as well as the many buildings he built over the years, and this statement by Dr. Mead:

“In the treatment of the insane we find that their surroundings are very important. Normal people are influenced much more than they realize by the pictures and buildings about them, by beauty or by ugliness.

They are improved or degraded by what they look upon. The same is true of the insane.”

Dr. Mead did not tolerate shoddy work and intended the buildings built on the HSC campus to stand for centuries. Built in 1909, Mead is a three-story Sioux quartzite and cast concrete building. Identified as a Neo Renaissance style structure, it exhibits features we do not often associate with contemporary construction.

Like many others on this site, labor for this building was provided largely by supervised patients and residents.

The building, which bears his name, was representative of his humanist philosophy and belief that an environment, both pleasant and attractive, was an important therapeutic tool, and contributed to wellbeing and healing. His philosophy of embracing beauty extended to gardens, grounds and impressive landscaping to the benefit of patients and caregivers.

“Under Dr. Mead’s direction every building on the campus was filled with fresh flowers every week,” Nelson said. “He bought artwork with his own money and surrounded the patients with beauty and stimulating pieces hoping they would make a connection with something soothing.”

As the women’s ward of the hospital, the Mead Building was home to patients suffering from a wide array of illness.

“There was the basic depression, the elderly, those with autism and Down’s syndrome, among others,” Nelson said. “One wing of the hospital still houses a water treatment tub and electroshock mechanism is still there.”

Probably the most elegant and well-known feature of the building is the marble staircase.

“We don’t know where it came from,” Nelson explained. “There is no documentation at HSC.”

Nelson said there are several different possibilities about how the majestic staircase came to be.

“One idea is that Dr. Mead acquired marble and had it shipped back to build the staircase, another is that it was to be used on an additional floor of the Capitol building in Pierre but that floor was never built and the marble was given to HSC. It is the same marble but the Capitol was finished in 1910 and there is no documentation to support this theory. The most widely believed story locally is that it was originally intended to be part of a house a very wealthy man planned to build in Yankton for his wife. The story goes that his wife died and the house was never built so he donated the marble to Dr. Mead. The only problem is that there is no documentation and no one seems to know the name of this wealthy man.”

Nelson said she does know that the marble the staircase is made of is not from Italy but rather domestic marble from the continental U.S. It is verifiable that the craftsman who built the staircase was Italian.

Marble from the building has been sent off for geologic survey to pinpoint where it came from.

The Mead Building was closed in 1981 and maintenance was stopped at that time. The building fell into disrepair but a 2008 structural analysis funded in part by a National Trust for Historic Preservation Matching Grant, found the building to be structurally sound.

The Yankton County Historical Society became interested in Mead after it was set for demolition by the State of South Dakota in December 2007. In February 2008, the group’s board of directors voted unanimously in favor of investigating the building for a new location of the Dakota Territorial Museum. Two years later the group obtained a lease from the State of South Dakota for use of the building, which also succeeded in removing Mead from the demolition list as long as the YCHS project moves forward. If the project does not succeed the building will be torn down.

Nelson said YCHS has a 20-year lease with the state. The museum must be moved into the building by December 31, 2018.

“The terms also say that Yankton County Historical Society can buy the building from the state for $1 as long as we are moved in by the 20-year mark,” she said.

The renovations of the building have unearthed several hidden treasures, Nelson said.

In addition to the staircase and the beautiful dental molding throughout the building, unique design work has been found under the building’s peeling paint.

“The moisture that seeped into the building over the years has caused the paint to peel in most rooms,” she said. “Underneath we found beautiful stencil work. There is a different design in every parlor room.”

An art documentarian from the University of South Dakota, Nancy Losacker, was called in to document the work.

“She peeled away layers to see what was there and determined it is a pounce pattern not a traditional stencil pattern,” Nelson said.

“The designs were created by someone holding a stencil up and blowing chalk onto it and then the colors were painted in by hand.

It was determined that the same person did all of it. Unfortunately there are no photographs that show this work.”

The style is art deco so it can reasonably be determined it was done in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

“It is extremely colorful with pastel greens, blues and a lot of pink,” Nelson said. “At one time it was a very colorful building.

Originally, the walls were painted a bright white. Some have suggested the designs were done as a tribute to Dr. Mead, who died in 1924.”

Unfortunately, in the late 1940s the philosophy of the medical profession changed and the entire interior of the building was painted an institutional green.

“The thinking of the times was that the building should be as bland as possible to avoid too much stimulation,” Nelson said. “I’ve talked to people who worked in the building for more than 20 years and they say they can’t remember the walls and ceilings being any color other than green, but we do know that by the time the building was vacated the green had been replaced with a soft brown tone.”

The final inspection of the new roof are now complete on the building and Nelson said that alone is a huge relief.

“I no longer have to cringe every time it rains or snows and worry about what new damage we’ll find the next time we visit the building,” she said.

Although the roof was a major accomplishment, providing a defense from the elements, Nelson said there is no time to rest.

“We are working on lead paint stabilization next,” she said.

“We are going to do our best to preserve as much of the artwork in the building in a safe manner. Plans are in place to put glass or plexiglass covers over portions of the artwork so it can be safely viewed.”

The board is also working on how to best utilize the space without extremely modifying it.

“Some of the patient rooms are too small for our purposes, so we may have to take out some walls, but we are going to make sure the corridors look the same,” Nelson said.

Plans are also under way for security and the addition of an elevator in the building.

“There will be an elevator,” Nelson said. “We want to make sure we are ADA compliant and that everyone will get the same experience. We plan to add a ramp to the front entrance so that everyone will enter the same way.”

The next phase of the renovation is securing the heating and cooling for the building, which includes replacing all the windows.

“We are putting new replicated storms on the outside of the building but the actual windows will not open since we have to keep everything climate controlled and free of dust so the museum’s collection will not be harmed,” Nelson said.

To finance all the window replacements, the public is invited to purchase windows in memory or as tributes.

“We have 70 windows available for purchase,” Nelson said.

“The price ranges are $250-$1,500 so we can find about anything in your price range.”

One of the best parts of the window project is the stories people tell Nelson and her staff when they purchase a window.

“One woman bought a particular basement window because that was the room her office was in,” Nelson said. “Some have bought windows in honor of a loved one who worked in the building or as a tribute to their relatives who homesteaded in the area.

“In 50 years, most of the people who gave will be gone, but anyone touring the building will be able to read all the tributes on the windows and that in itself will tell a story. I love being a part of that whole thing – the history of the building and the history in the making. We really want the community to be a part of this project because we are doing it for them.”

For more information about the Yankton County Historical Society and the Mead project visit dakotaterritorialmuseum.org.