Rebecca Miller, Executive Director of the DC Preservation League, leads the organization's first-ever virtual tour of St. Elizabeths Hospital. This program explores the fascinating history of the country’s first federally funded mental health hospital and discuss the preservation of its campus and buildings. Since its founding in 1852, the campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital has had an important impact on the treatment of the mentally ill in the United States. Sited on a wooded ridge in the Anacostia Hills, this National Historic Landmark consists of buildings, landscapes, and viewsheds that convey the history and significance of this 350 acre campus. The 350 acre campus is in various phases of mixed use development and is a living example of how public attitudes and policy shape the built environment and how the built environment can shape public attitudes. Date of Program: January 27, 2021

There is 66 of these huge buildings. I tried to get the important stuff... Dr. Freeman's laboratory. The horse barn. The Dix building lived a man that calls him self Hittites. He made this collection of rocks over the years. He found old junk and dug up rocks and made the collection all over the floors of the hospital. If you call them rocks he gets very upset. To him they are life forces. He connects rocks glass bottles and light bulbs thinking they will work to power the hospital somehow.. Established in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, St. Elizabeths Hospital has had a distinguished history in the treatment of the mentally ill. The Hospital's early mission, as defined by its founder, the leading mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, was to provide the "most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated here were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum, and said they were at St. Elizabeths, the colonial name of the land where the Hospital is located. Congress officially changed the Hospital's name to St. Elizabeths in 1916. By the 1940s, the Hospital complex covered an area of over 300 acres and housed 7,000 patients. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. In 1987, the federal government transferred the hospital operations to the DC Department of Mental Health, while retaining ownership of the western campus. In 2005, the Hospital celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding and honored members of the Armed Forces who became mentally ill while serving their country. In April 2010, the Hospital moved into a new 450,000 square foot facility on Alabama Avenue in SE Washington DC. The Hospital complex is located on a hill in southeast Washington, overlooking the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. The original 1850s building has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The campus is now site of the US Coast Guard National Headquarters including the Historian’s Office. Access to the site is restricted. The campus retains many of its historic features including: a Civil War cemetery where 300 Union and Confederate soldiers who died there are buried. Donations for expenses are greatly appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/crumblingdecayamerica PHOTO ALBUM LINK https://www.facebook.com/1477615182322062/posts/2269244559825783/ Join us on http://facebook.com/crumblingdecayamerica http://instagram.com/crumblingdecayamerica

Abandoned, Roadside and Historic: St. Elizabeth Hospital Washington DC St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C. . It opened in 1855 with the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing over 8,000 patients at its peak in the 1950s, the hospital had a fully functioning medical-surgical unit, a school of nursing, accredited internships and psychiatric residencies. Its campus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990. The west portion of the campus is home to over 1,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security personnel and serves as its headquarters. St. Elizabeths Hospital campus also has the joint tenant of the Douglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building with hundreds of Coast Guard personnel. The campus grounds also contain the Saint Elizabeths Hospital East and West Cemeteries. Burials were performed on the West campus beginning in 1856. Approximately 450 graves of the Civil War veterans and an unknown number of civilians are buried on the West campus. In 1873, the three-quarter-acre West Campus burying ground was deemed full, and a new cemetery was opened on the East Campus. Approximately 2,050 military and 3,000 civilian interments occurred on the nine-acre cemetery on the East Campus over the next 120 years. The hospital was under the control of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services until 1987, when ownership of its east wing was transferred to the District of Columbia. Since 2010, the hospital's functions have been limited to the portion of the east campus operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The remainder of the east campus is slated for redevelopment by the District of Columbia, and the west campus is for use of the United States Department of Homeland Security headquarters and its subsidiary agencies. Featuring abandoned, roadside and Historic finds. Find us on Social Media: FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/abandonedroadside TIK TOK: @AbandonedRoadside #urbex #abandoned #newjersey #nj #haunted #ghost #weird #urbexandchill #explore #adventure #urbanexplorer

District of Columbia Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation

WATCH: Sunday at 6pm & 10pm ET on C-SPAN3 - a visit to the "Architecture of an Asylum St. Elizabeths: 1852-2017" exhibit at the National Building Museum. https://www.c-span.org/series/?americanArtifacts

Trailer for "Saint Elizabeth's," a documentary on the historical DC hospital. Produced by Hilary Crowe, Dustin Harrison-Atlas, Chris Hulick, Brad Allgood, Lauren Goldstein, Jon Malis, and Amanda Yerby.

If you've been to U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, you notice something strange -- structures from a different era. And within their walls, they hold secrets from a dark past. Over 100 years ago, this property had a different name: The Government Hospital for the Insane. Happy Halloween! 🎃 Video by Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Magee