Agnews Insane Asylum - Santa Clara, CA
Posted by: ucdvicky
N 37° 23.618 W 121° 57.218
10S E 592621 N 4139054
National Register of Historical Places: The Agnews Insane Asylum
Waymark Code: WM1HC0
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/10/2007
Views: 76
This center was originally known as the "The Great Asylum for the Insane". In 1885, it was established as a facility for the care of the mentally ill. During it's years of operation it was renowned for it's compassionate and progressive treatment of it's patients.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a disaster for this site. Not only structurally but also in the amount of lives lost. It became know as the Santa Clara Valley's greatest loss of life with the loss of 117 patients and staff. These individuals were buried in mass graves on the site.
After this disaster, it was reconstructed circa 1911 as Agnews State Mental Hospital. The facility was a small self-contained town, including a multitude of construction trade "shops", a farm which raised pigs and vegetable crops, a steam generating power plant for heating the buildings by steam, and even a fire department.
At the time, it boasted the largest population in the South San Francisco Bay area, and was served by its own train station which stood at the west end of Palm Drive across Lafayette Street; the station building remained until vandalism and fire precipitated its demolition in the 1990s.
The original campus was closed in 1998.
Street address: 4000 Lafayette Ave Santa Clara, CA USA 95054
County / Borough / Parish: Santa Clara
Year listed: 1997
Historic (Areas of) Significance: Person, Event, Architecture/Engineering
Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949
Historic function: Health Care
Current function: Health Care
Primary Web Site: [Web Link]
Secondary Website 1: [Web Link]
Privately owned?: Not Listed
Season start / Season finish: Not listed
Hours of operation: Not listed
Secondary Website 2: Not listed
National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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