State Lunatic Asylum
a.k.a. Administrative Building,Austin State Hospital
4110 Guadalupe, Austin, TXThe Austin State Lunatic Asylum is a nationally significant landmark both historically and architecturally. Created as the Texas State Lunatic Asylum by the Texas Legislature in 1857, it reflected the state's changing attitude toward the mentally ill by the utilization of a nationally recognized mental hospital plan, and represented one of the most current architectural styles of the day, the Italianate, and, later, Victorian Classical Revival.
The first major hospital in the United States founded for the care and custody of the insane was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1851. Five years later, in 1856, Texas governor Elisha Pease signed into law an act of the Sixth Legislature which called for the construction of a state lunatic asylum as well as charitable institutions for the deaf and blind. The Legislature appropriated $50,000 for the land and buildings, and Governor Pease appointed three commissioners to select a site and acquire the land through donation or purchase, with the purchase price not to exceed $5 per acre.
The commission selected a site roughly two miles northwest of the State Capitol, comprising approximately 380 acres. The land was deeded to the State of Texas on April 4, 1857, by William Fields of Galveston for the sum of $2,500. The citizens of Austin paid $2,250 of the state's western public domain to provide for the future expansion of the institution.
Most Authorities in the mid-1800's believed that mental institutions should be located away from the noise and excitement of population centers. Rural acreage was generally cheaper than that in urban areas, and farming was considered to be a healthy occupation for patients. The legislature's original intent for the State Lunatic Asylum was for it to relieve county almshouses and jails of their mentally ill inmates. The institute was to serve as a catchment facility for people exhibiting "serious mental deviation" who could not function in their home communities. "The Texas Constitution defined the purpose of hospitalization as that of protecting persons and property from irrational acts. Consequently, in the beginning, and for many decades to follow, the State Lunatic Asylum was destined to function primarily as a custodial institution" (Jo Ann Elliott and Yvette M. Petty, Issues Influencing the Delivery of Mental Health Services at Austin State Hospital, December 1980, p. 1-2).
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.