Agnews Developmental Center
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Agnews Insane Asylum
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| Location | 4000 Lafayette Ave., Santa Clara, California |
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| Coordinates | 37°23′38″N 121°57′10″W / 37.39389°N 121.95278°WCoordinates: 37°23′38″N 121°57′10″W / 37.39389°N 121.95278°W |
| Built | 1906 |
| Architect | Stocking, Leonard, State Architect; Sellon & Hennings, McDougall, George |
| Architectural style | Mission Revival—Spanish Colonial Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 97000829 |
| Added to NRHP | August 13, 1997 |
Agnews Developmental Center was a psychiatric and medical care facility, located in Santa Clara, California.
In 1885, the center, originally known as "The Great Asylum for the Insane", was established as a facility for the care of the mentally ill. The main structure, a red brick edifice, was located on land near Agnew's Village, which later became part of Santa Clara. By the early twentieth century, Agnews boasted the largest institutional 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.
In 1926, the center was expanded to include a second campus about 2 miles (3 km) to the east in San Jose. Individuals with developmental disabilities were first admitted to a special rehabilitation program in 1965. Programs for the mentally ill were discontinued in 1972. Since then, the center has been used exclusively for the care and treatment of persons with developmental disabilities.
During the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Agnews became infamous as the site of the Santa Clara Valley's greatest loss of life resulting from the quake. The Daily Palo Alto reported: "The position of the people in Agnews is critical; a number of insane persons having escaped from the demolished asylum, are running at random about the country." 117 patients and staff were killed and buried in mass graves on the site. The main building and some others were irreparably damaged.
Following this disaster, Agnews was rebuilt in the Mediterranean Revival architecture styles of Mission Revival—Spanish Colonial Revival, in a layout resembling a college campus of two-story buildings. It re-opened 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.
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