Gracewood State Hospital

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Gracewood State Hospital
Established 1918
Opened 1921
Closed 2015
Current Status Active
Building Style Cottage Plan
Location Gracewood, GA
Alternate Names
  • Georgia Training School for Mental Defectives
  • Gracewood State School and Hospital
  • Gracewood Center



History

In 1918, the Georgia Legislature authorized Governor Hugh M. Dorsey to appoint a committee to investigate, report, and make recommendations to relieve the state of the uncared for “feebleminded.” One year later, an Act was established to open training schools for “mental defectives;” an old orphanage with 325 acres in a small community called Gracewood was then purchase by the state.

The Georgia Training School for Mental Defectives, as it was first called, received its first resident on July 21, 1921, and employed one physician bthe end of its first yea, under the surveillance of the Georgia Board of Health. The primary objectives of this institution were to, “modify behaviors and increase functioning of people with disabilities.” By its 50th anniversary, Gracewood housed 1,700 people and had changed its objectives to provide a sense of community inside of its walls. Currently, Gracewood is still functioning but it is predicted that by 2015, all 240 people who are located in this facility will be moved to community-based centers