The patients and staff had all moved to the new Saskatchewan Hospital, and some equipment had been sold but physical reminders of life in the old Saskatchewan Hospital remained scattered through the many rooms.
Everything from staff desks and filing cabinets to lockers and exercise equipment, from patients’ recreational and therapeutic pianos, pottery kilns, toboggans and a ping pong table to an entire room filled with pictures and paintings previously hung on many walls, from washing machines and dryers to the cafeteria filled with kitchen equipment and the industrial shop with scattered woodworking tools, lumber and many wooden stools – those attending the Saskatchewan Hospital auction March 16 were afforded a glimpse of the past.
After more than 100 years of housing patients and staff, even things everyone had forgotten about were dragged out of storage for the dispersal auction.
An antique enamel baby bath casually dropped onto a pallet with cafeteria food trays brought to mind the former stigmatizing of girls who found themselves pregnant out of wedlock. Were some such unfortunate young women sent to what was then known as “Saskatchewan Hospital for the Insane?” Or had there been sexual abuse of female patients that resulted in a pregnancy or two?
An old chest still bearing a Canadian National Express railway tag addressed to Sask. Mental Hospital, North Battleford was another item that evoked the far distant past. The underside of the tag read, “Possessions inside trunk” and was signed Elari Totoeskul. Was Elari Totoeskul put on the train at Hafford with his or her belongings and sent to the North Battleford? Or had he or she been previously admitted and now the “possessions” were being sent along afterwards? Either way, it would appear Elari died in residence and nobody ever bothered to pick up the trunk afterwards.
The auction itself began upstairs at 10 a.m. in the main building with the sale of assorted desks, filing cabinets, shelving and other office furniture. Auctioneer Lucas Closson of Hammer Down Auctions in Unity and the crowd of some 400 bidders moved from room to room throughout the building, upstairs and down. Sales even took place in several hallways where office chairs, lockers and pianos lined up, waiting for someone to take them home.
With approximately 150 desks being sold, by the time another room of desks was auctioned off downstairs in the early afternoon, bargains were to be had with some desks selling for $5 and one small computer desk in mint condition going for only $2.50. Upright pianos are not items everyone wishes to have in their home so a few of those did not even sell. Some of the stainless steel kitchen and cafeteria items sold for scrap metal value only.
Bidding was more spirited on some of the unique items. The railway chest sold for $170 and an old banjo brought $140. One of the pottery kilns went for $145. A buyer bid $55 for a six-foot wooden toboggan and then elected to take a second at the same price.
With, according to Closson, a total of about 950 lots sold throughout the day, starting with chairs at 10 a.m. and ending with a sander at the end of the day, the auction was a marathon of over 12 hours, finishing up at 10:15 p.m., with almost half the registered bidders still in attendance.
By noon March 20, most of the items had been picked up by the buyers or their representatives. Footsteps and conversation echoed through the empty rooms and hallways. Over 100 years of patient care, history and the evolution of mental health treatment in Saskatchewan had come to an end in that building and the building itself was the only reminder left.
