The hospital has operated since 1877 under a variety of names including Mitchell and Mussigbrod, Insane Asylum of the State of Montana, Montana State Hospital for the Insane, Montana State Insane Asylum, Montana State Hospital, and Warm Springs State Hospital. Its governing body is the Montana State Board of Commissioners for the Insane.
In 1934 the WPA allotted a $215,400 loan and grand toward construction at the Montana State Hospital in "Galen", now known as Warm Springs. We assume that, given the amount of the loan and grant, the WPA was either principally or entirely responsible for funding the main hospital building, shown below, which is located beside the older, 1919 Administration Building.
The Helena Independent Record printed an article on the hospital on July 12, 2009. It was a first hand account of the author's visit to and tour of the hospital in 2009. A small portion of the article is reproduced below.
Into the Darkness
July 12, 2009 12:00 am • By EVE BYRON Independent Record
The Montana State Hospital, better known as Warm Springs, is named after the small hill where scalding hot water surfaces. Today, a gazebo marks the spot. The hospital constitutes the town, other than a roadhouse right off Interstate 90.
A building here first housed tourists as a hotel in the 1870s - the outlaw Jesse James allegedly paid a visit - but the structures eventually were converted to a hospital. A contract with the state made Warm Springs Montana's first human services agency.
The state bought the property in 1912. By the 1950s, Warm Springs was Montana's largest [un]incorporated community, with 2,000 patients, barns for poultry and dairy cattle, a greenhouse and gardens.
Many who came here never left. Two cemeteries mark their final resting place.
By the mid 1970s, the hospital population had dropped to around 1,000 patients. Nationally, the call arose for community-based care and the hospital further reduced its patient population. By 1988, just 300 patients remained.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other mental health advocacy groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the state in 1988, saying Warm Springs' mentally ill patients were routinely strapped to beds or locked in small rooms for days, plus given drugs as punishment. They claimed patients were subjected to inhumane treatment that violated their constitutional rights.
Later that same year, patients moved into a new $6 million building and staffing increased by 50 percent. After a lengthy trial in 1991, Helena District Court Judge Dorothy McCarter found that some patients' rights had been violated, and ordered the hospital to remedy the problems.
In 2000, Warm Springs opened its newest hospital facility. Four single-story wings stretch out from the two-story central lobby, which is where the coffee house brews are served each Friday morning.
Read more at the Helena Independent Record