page_title: Oregon State Hospital
section_title: 1862–1900: Establishment and early years
hierarchical_section_title: Oregon State Hospital / History / 1862–1900: Establishment and early years
caption_attribution_description: English: The Oregon State Insane Asylum from the January 1, 1882 edition of The West Shore
context_page_description: Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem with a smaller satellite campus in Junction City opened in 2014. Founded in 1862 and constructed in the Kirkbride Plan design in 1883, it is the oldest operating psychiatric hospital in the state of Oregon, and one of the oldest continuously operated hospitals on the West Coast.
  The hospital was established after the close of the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in Portland, located 47 miles north of Salem. Originally named the Oregon Hospital for the Insane, the Oregon State Hospital was active in the fields of electroconvulsive therapy, lobotomies, eugenics, and hydrotherapy. In the mid-twentieth century, the facility experienced significant overcrowding problems, with a peak of nearly 3,600 patients. In 1961, Dammasch State Hospital opened in Clackamas County near Portland, which served to mitigate the hospital's overcrowding issues. Dammasch would close in 1995.
context_section_description: The original Oregon Hospital for the Insane was established by American physician James C. Hawthorne in what was then East Portland, Oregon, (now the Hawthorne District). The facility was built in 1862, and the street on which it was built was renamed Asylum Avenue. Local residents protested about the name, however, and it was renamed Hawthorne in honor of the hospital's founder in 1888. The street in Salem on which the current hospital is located, Center Street, was also originally named Asylum Avenue. Activist Dorothea Dix was an advocate of Hawthorne's original hospital, which she had visited twice, but was a vocal critic of the opening of the new state hospital, believing the state was ill-prepared to care for patients adequately.
  The Oregon constitution mandated that state hospitals be built in the capital city of Salem. Groundbreaking began May 1, 1881, and the hospital was completed in 1883. The newly built, state-funded hospital opened as the Oregon State Insane Asylum on October 23, 1883, and was constructed based on the Kirkbride Plan for a total of $184,000 (equivalent to $5,048,829 in 2019). Its architecture is Italianate in style, and was designed by W.F. Boothby. Dr. Simeon Josephi was appointed superintendent of the hospital from its opening until May 1887, and strived to base his treatment methods on those used by Dr. Hawthorne. He was succeeded by Dr. Harry Lane, who implemented an "aggressive" vaccination program to combat smallpox outbreaks. By 1891, the hospital housed a total of 478 male and 212 female patients; the growing influx of patients led to two additional wings being added onto the hospital, followed by a conversion from gas to electric lighting. Additionally, the hospital infirmary was completed in 1892. In 1896, the most commonly reported causes for insanity at the hospital were epilepsy, intemperance, masturbation, and religious paranoia. In 1900, the hospital began to expand its campus, with two additional women's wards and four men's being added to the main building. According to historical documents, the hospital had admitted a total of 5,046 patients since its opening, 1,243 of which had been "released as recovered," 1,051 "improved," while at least 1,058 had died in the hospital.
caption: Oregon State Hospital, c. 1881
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