What opened as the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States, Psychiatric Institute of Washington or St. Elizabeths Hospital?
St. Elizabeths Hospital St. Elizabeths Hospital opened in 1855 as the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing over 8,000 patients at its peak in the 1950s, the hospital at one point had a fully functioning medical-surgical unit, a school of nursing, and accredited internships and psychiatric residencies. Its campus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
Chicago-Read Mental Health Center Chicago-Read Mental Health Center (CRMHC, often called simply Read) is a state-run inpatient JCAHO-accredited psychiatric facility with between 150 and 200 beds located in the neighborhood of Dunning on the northwest side of the city of Chicago close to O'Hare International Airport in the state of Illinois. It has served the adult residents of Chicago under various names since 1854 as a repository for the mentally ill and destitute and as an alternative to incarceration for mentally ill offenders. Its former names have included the Chicago State Hospital and the Charles F. Read Zone Center; in 1885, it was called The County Insane Asylum and Infirmary. Originally, it was simply known as "Dunning" though "Dunning" officially closed on June 30, 1912, and reopened the next day as Chicago State Hospital. Much later, it became the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center.