Chicago State Hospital

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Chicago State Hospital
Opened 1869
Closed 1971
Demolished 1980s
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Kirkbride Plan
Location Chicago, IL
Peak Patient Population 2,100 in 1955
Alternate Names Cook County Institution at Dunning

Dunning Asylum
Dunning Mental Institute
Cook County Institution at Dunning
Read Mental Health Facility
Charles F. Read Zone Center

Chicago Read Mental Health Center



History

In 1851 the county poor farm was established at the town of Jefferson, Ill., about 12 miles northwest of Chicago. The farm consisted of 160 acres of fairly improved land, and was formerly owned by peter Ludby, who located it in 1839. Additional land was purchased in 1860 and in 1884. At the present time (1915) the land consists of 234 acres.

By November, 1854, the county poorhouse was nearly finished. The building was of brick, three stories high and basement, and cost about $25,000.

In 1858 Dr. D. B. Fonda was physician for the poorhouse and insane departments. At the time the building of the insane asylum, 200 feet south of the almshouse hospital, was contemplated.

In the first biennial report of the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities of the State of Illinois, dated December, 1870, occurs the following:

    Although the 

On July 1, 1912 Cook County transferred the land, buildings, and equipment of the Cook County Institution at Dunning to the Board of Administration (Board of Administration, Second and Third Annual Reports Springfield, 1913 p. 931). This institution, opened in 1869, had formerly housed the indigent, tubercular, and insane of Cook County. After the Board of Administration assumed control in 1912 the institution was used solely for the treatment and care of the insane and was renamed Chicago State Hospital.

The hospital opened a training school for nurses in 1912 and established the first state psychiatric nursing affiliation program in 1918. The Psychiatric Nursing Affiliation Program provided instruction in psychiatric nursing to students from general hospital nursing schools throughout the country.

The Civil Administrative Code of 1917 transferred control of Chicago State Hospital to the Department of Public Welfare where it remained until the creation of the Department of Mental Health in 1961. In 1970 Chicago State Hospital merged with the Charles F. Read Zone Center to become the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center.

Images of Chicago State Hospital

Main Image Gallery: Chicago State Hospital