Caring for People with Mental Illnesses - Norman, OK - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The Historical Signage project has installed three new historical markers in Norman, with more planned for 2023. This one, about the care of those with mental illness, is located on the south side of Griffin Park, near the soccer complex.

Caring for People with Mental Illness

Dozens of Oklahomans boarded a train in Jacksonville, Ill., one day in 1895. They were bound for the prairie town of Norman, Oklahoma, and the newly opened private sanitarium that would care for them. That was the beginning of what is now known as Griffin Memorial Hospital near this location. By the end of September, 1895, 78 patients were returned to Oklahoma.

Prior to 1895, Oklahoma Territory contracted out treatment of its mental patients to the state of Illinois. When the failed High Gate Academy buildings on the east end of Main Street in Norman became available, some Oklahoma doctors formed the Oklahoma Sanitarium Co. to open a facility here. They contracted with the territorial legislature to care for the patients closer to their families. The first patient, a woman from Woodward County, was admitted on June 15, 1985.

In 1915 the sanitarium was sold to the state and became known as Oklahoma State Hospital. The name was changed in 1952 to Central State Griffin Memorial Hospital. In 1994 the name was shortened to Griffin Memorial Hospital to honor Dr. David Griffin, an early-day hospital psychiatrist and administrator.

Inscribed on the hospital's Main Street front gate was "Norman Institute for Violently Mentally Insane." Legend has it that Dr. Griffin, a psychiatrist from North Carolina, personally chiseled the word "Insane" off the sign in an early attempt to reduce the stigma of mental illness. Thousands of patients have received care at the hospital which, at one time, employed hundreds of Oklahomans. It was a gated city within our city. The hospital had a dairy, (now the site of Griffin Park), a cattle operation, gardens, laundries, ice and power plants, and recreational areas for patients. Most patients had jobs within the institution. Doctors and administrators lived on the grounds with their families.

County: Cleveland Record Address:: 1001 E. Robinson St. Griffin Community Park Norman , OK USA 73071 Web site if available: [Web Link] Rate the Site: Date Erected: 2022 Sponsor (Who put it there): The Historical Signage project

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