Kenmore Hospital has been a place of intrigue ever since it opened in 1895.
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Initially called the Kenmore Asylum, it has been a place of care for many of the patients who spent either a short time or most of a lifetime there.
It was the first of the country asylums, and until Bloomfield Hospital at Orange was built in 1922, it had a catchment area from Liverpool to the Victorian border and west to the South Australian border.
"It wasn't just a hospital, it was a village and for quite a time, self-supporting," local historian Leone Morgan said.
"Of the many buildings, 19 of them were wards, houses for senior staff and accommodation for male and female nursing staff. The artisan areas also catered for apprenticeship training in all the trades.
"The grounds included farm areas, with sports fields in abundance. Patients, staff and the local community all shared the facilities. Cricket, tennis, soccer, hockey, softball or croquet groups never had to mow or mark out a playing field as the hospital did it for them."
Read more: Taking in a tour of Kenmore Hospital
She said the talk would concentrate on how the hospital was built.
"When it first opened there were four houses on-site before patients moved in," she said.
"It was not until January, 1895 that the first patients started to trickle in."
She said the first male nurses' home was built early on, but the female nurses lived in some of the wards with own quarters upstairs, and the female nurses' home was not built until the 1920s.
She said when the Kenmore Hospital Museum closed in 2011, major museums such as the Powerhouse Museum and the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum came in and had the pick of the collection.
"It took two years to dismantle the contents of the Kenmore Museum," she said.
Ms Morgan is delivering a presentation on the former hospital for History Goulburn, on Monday, November 11 at 6pm at the Goulburn Soldiers Club.
tour of the grounds will also be held on Saturday, November 16 from 2-4pm. Bookings are essential for the tour. Email historygoulburn.events@gmail.com or phone 0459 528 914 and leave a message.
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