In the first half of the 19th century, a rise in alcohol use sparked the advent of numerous temperance societies. For many years, these groups preached that alcoholism was caused by moral failure. That began to change when Dr. Edward Turner founded the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum. Dr. Turner, the first person to treat alcohol as a medical condition, organized the asylum on this date in 1854. The asylum operated as a private hospital until 1879, when New York state took over the property as a treatment facility for mental illness, now known as the Binghamton Psychiatric Center.

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