Elgin Mental Health Center

The Elgin Mental Health Center (formerly Elgin State Hospital) is a mental health facility operated by the State of Illinois in Elgin, Illinois. Although during its history, its mission has changed, at times it treated mental illness, tuberculosis, and provided federally funded care for veterans. The hospital's site, which included a patient-staffed farm reached a maximum of 1,139 acres (461 ha) after World War II.

Illinois' first mental hospital opened in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1851, but the need for two more hospitals serving Northern and Southern Illinois became apparent. The legislature authorized the two new hospitals on April 16, 1869, and set up a committee to select a site for the Northern Illinois hospital. To gain this important source of future employment, the City of Elgin sold more than $40,000 worth of bonds to purchase 80 acres (32 ha) of land south of the city limits and also promised to provide free freight to the site for building materials. After the site was selected, a Board of Trustees, primarily consisting of prominent Elgin residents, was appointed to construct and run the new hospital. The Trustees followed the recommendations of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (AMSAII), in terms of the amount of land required and also by adopting the Kirkbride Plan for the Central Building. Colonel S.V. Shipman, who had designed the main building of the Mendota, Wisconsin state hospital, was selected as the architect of the Elgin building. The front expanse of the Center Building was 1,086 feet (331 m) and was designed to be narrow in order to offer natural light and ventilation. The building was used until it was demolished in 1993.

The hospital received its first patient on April 3, 1872. It was originally called the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane, and its first superintendent was Edwin Arius Kilbourne.

The hospital received its first criminal patient who was "not guilty by reason of insanity" in 1873. This "forensic" population grew until the legislature established a separate state hospital for the forensic population in Chester, Illinois in 1889.

The hospital outgrew the Central Building and the Annex building was opened in 1891, just south of the Center Building with 300 additional beds. Identical buildings were also built at Jacksonville and Anna. The Annex was closed in 1971 and razed in 1972.

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