Columbus State Hospital for the Insane photograph

Black and white oversize photograph of the Columbus State Hospital for the Insane, located on West Broad Street in Columbus, Ohio, ca. 1877. Situated in a large wooded area, the hospital campus consisted of a central facility with many interconnected wings and several outbuildings. The Columbus State Hospital, a facility for the care and treatment of mentally ill people, admitted its first patient in 1877. This facility replaced the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, which the Ohio General Assembly established in 1835. Built with a capacity for 150 patients, the Ohio Lunatic Asylum soon became overcrowded, and part of the hospital was destroyed by fire in November 1868. In April 1869 the legislature laid plans for a new structure to accommodate 500 patients. This new hospital, built on the "Kirkbride Plan," was under construction from 1870 to 1877, and represented the largest single public capital investment by the State of Ohio up to that time, with the exception of the Statehouse. The main building contained over 800 rooms and was said to be the largest building under one roof until the Pentagon was constructed in Washington, D.C. In 1996, after years of neglect, the Administration Building was demolished. Over the decades, these two facilities operated under various names including the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum, Central Ohio Hospital for the Insane, Columbus Hospital for the Insane, and Columbus State Hospital