St. Elizabeths Hospital

St. Elizabeths Hospital
District of Columbia
An early 20th century photo of the Center Building at St. Elizabeths, one of the oldest structures on the hospital campus
Geography
Location	1100 Alabama Avenue, Southeast, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Organisation
Funding	Public hospital
Type	Specialist
Specialty	Psychiatric
History
Construction started	August 1852
Opened	October 1855
Links
Website	www.sehcommunity.org
Lists	Hospitals in U.S.
St. Elizabeths Hospital
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Aerial view of the West Campus in 2015h
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Location	2700 and 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, 1100 Alabama Avenue SE Washington, D.C.[1]
Coordinates	38°51′03″N 76°59′40″W / 38.85083°N 76.99444°W / 38.85083; -76.99444
Area	346 acres (140 ha)
Built	1852
Architect	Thomas U. Walter; Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
Architectural style	Italianate Revival, Italian Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	79003101
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 26, 1979[2]
Designated NHLD	December 14, 1990[3]

St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The hospital opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane,^[4] 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.^[5] Its campus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.^[3]

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. The West Campus was transferred to the United States Department of Homeland Security for its headquarters and its subsidiary agencies.^[6] 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 contain the Saint Elizabeths Hospital East and West Cemeteries. Burials were performed on the West Campus beginning in 1856. Approximately 450 graves of 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. At that time, ownership of its East Campus was transferred by the federal government to the District of Columbia.^[7]