Provincial Mental Home, Colquitz

Government

Provincial Mental Home, Colquitz

• Provincial Mental Home, Colquitz

1919-1964

Colquitz is a mental institution which operated from 1919 to 1964, located on Wilkinson Road in Saanich, B.C. It was originally built as a provincial gaol in 1914, known as the Saanich Prison Farm. In 1919, Mental Health Services assumed jurisdiction of the Saanich Prison Farm and it became the Provincial Mental Home, Colquitz, B.C. (or Colquitz Mental Hospital). The mental home was opened on March 25, 1919, with the transfer of nine patients from Essondale (later renamed Riverview) in Coquitlam.. In the next 15 months the population grew to 99 patients. It was used to house the male “criminally insane” inmates of the provincial mental hospitals. All admissions to Colquitz were transfers from Essondale.

The supervisor of Colquitz was under the direction of the Medical Superintendent of Essondale. All patient files were returned to Essondale when inmates died or were released. After its closure as a mental hospital in 1964, the facility once more became a prison, first as temporary accommodation for overflow from the Oakalla Prison Farm and then in 1970 as the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre, popularly known as the Wilkinson Road Jail.

The supervisors of the Provincial Mental Home at Colquitz were:
Granby Farrant Supervisor 1919-1933
F.M. Spooner Supervisor 1933-1941
T.A. Morris Supervisor 1941-1947
L.G.C. d'Easum Medical Superintendent 1948-1953 obituary in Mental Hospitals annual report 1933-1934

B Government Name

Revised PW/KH 2017-01-20
Revised history (added info from GR-0501) RMCRORY 2020-05-01

Central Name Authority Files