Ravenscraig Hospital, which is due to close, was known in the early days as the 'Palace in the Kip Valley'.

The foundation stone for what was originally Smithston Poorhouse and Asylum was laid in September 1876.

The ceremony was carried out with full Masonic honours by the Earl of Mar and Kellie, who was Depute Grand Master of Scotland.

It had been originally planned that Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, Grand Master Mason and Lord Lieutenant of the County, would undertake the duty, but he was indisposed.

There was public resentment at the building of such a grand establishment and this is why detractors referred to it as the 'Palace in the Kip Valley'.

While there was no argument that the existing poorhouse in Captain Street was inadequate, many believed the Smithston scheme went far beyond the needs of its future occupants.

The majority of ratepayers were angry because they would have to foot the �100,000 bill.

Criticisms aside, the day of the foundation stone ceremony was one of great celebration.

It was made a public holiday and bands and processions marched through the town.

There were speeches galore and the inmates of Captain Street Poorhouse received a substantial dinner of roast beef and plum pudding.

When Smithston Poorhouse and Asylum opened in 1879, it was out in the countryside with not a house within miles of it.

During the First World War, part of the establishment became a military hospital for wounded servicemen invalided home from France and Belgium.

Secrecy surrounded the arrival of the wounded. Fleets of St Andrew's ambulances gathered at Princes Pier station in the early hours of the morning to convey patients to the Smithston.

During the Second World War, the building was taken over by the Canadian Navy for use as a 'stone frigate' called HMCS Niobe.

Young ladies from Greenock became friendly with the visitors, and at the end of the war many went off with their Canadian husbands for a new life on the other side of Atlantic.

The creation of the National Health Service in 1948 led to a complete change in the administration of the institution, which was renamed Ravenscraig Hospital.