South Carolina State Hospital facts for kids
Quick facts for kids South Carolina State Hospital |
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Mills building in 2012
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| Geography | |
| Location | South Carolina, United States |
| Organization | |
| Funding | Public hospital |
| Hospital type | Specialist |
| Services | |
| Beds | 410 |
| Speciality | Psychiatric |
| History | |
| Closed | December 2015 |
The South Carolina State Hospital was a special hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. It was run by the state government and helped people with mental health conditions.
It started in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. This made it one of the very first public hospitals for mental health in the United States. The first building, called the Mills Building, was designed by a famous architect named Robert Mills. This building is now a special historic place called a National Historic Landmark.
By 1900, the hospital cared for over 1,000 patients. Over time, mental health care began to move to smaller, local centers. Because of this, the hospital closed in the late 1990s. Some buildings were used for patient care for a short time after that. Other parts of the campus were used as offices and storage until about 2014.
In 2014, parts of the hospital property were sold to private owners. The William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute, which helped children and teens, stayed on the campus until 2015. It then moved to a new location. By 2021, the entire property, also known as "Bull Street," was privately owned. Money from these sales is used to help patients who need mental health care.
Contents
How the Hospital Started and Grew
The idea for the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum became a law in 1821. It was the second state hospital of its kind, after one in Virginia. The first building was designed by Robert Mills. It was built between 1822 and 1827. This building had new ideas to prevent fires and keep patients safe.
At first, only patients who could pay were accepted. If a patient couldn't pay, their local government would cover the costs. Most patients were white, but some African-Americans were admitted before 1848. After 1848, their admission was officially allowed.
Changes During the Civil War
In 1865, during the Civil War, the hospital was briefly used as a prisoner of war camp. It took in prisoners from a former camp called Camp Sorghum. One prisoner, S. H. M. Byers, even hid in the hospital's attic. He stayed there when the city of Columbia was about to be captured.
Expanding Services and New Names
The hospital grew over time. The Mills building was made larger, and new buildings were added. In 1892, the hospital started a nursing school, which closed in 1950. In 1896, its name changed to the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane.
By 1910, the hospital was very full. Like many hospitals back then, it didn't have enough money or staff. Patients sometimes didn't get the best care. Because of this, a second campus was opened for African-Americans north of Columbia. This new campus was first called Palmetto State Hospital. Later, it was named Crafts-Farrow Hospital. For many years, it helped older patients. Today, it holds many offices for the Department of Mental Health.
Modernizing Mental Health Care
Challenges with staff, money, and patient care continued into the 1900s. In the 1920s, the state started to move mental health care into local communities. In the 1980s, legal actions about patient care led to a bigger effort to reduce the number of patients in the hospital.
In 1996, the two hospital campuses were combined. The hospital then had 410 beds. Buildings that were no longer used for patient care became offices for the state Department of Mental Health. The historic Mills building was used by the Department of Health & Environmental Control.
Today, the Department of Health and Environmental Control still uses the Mills-Jarrett complex. The rest of the campus has been sold to a private company. The Department of Mental Health stopped using the site in December 2015. This was when the William S. Hall Children's Institute moved to a different location. In September 2020, a fire damaged part of the Babcock Building. However, developers are still working to turn it into apartments.
See also
