1920 Census
State Hospital No. 3
Washington Township
Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri
Nevada State
Hospital
Provisions for an asylum in Nevada, Missouri were established by the
state's general assembly in 1885. The asylum began life in a striking Second
Empire style Kirkbride building designed by architect Morris Frederick Bell
which was completed in 1887. Also known as State Asylum Number Three, it was the
third public asylum erected in the state of Missouri (the first being in Fulton,
the second in Saint Joseph). The building's extravagantly ornate facade was
modified in the twentieth-century. Most notably the towers and other decorative
elements of the building's design were removed, eliminating much of the
structure's character. The state hospital closed in 1991, although other
facilities remained on its former grounds. However, the Kirkbride building was
abandoned and eventually torn down in 1999. It was also called the Missouri
State Hospital for the Insane No. 3.
NOTE: The
fact that a person was a resident of the State Hospital does not neccessarily
mean that they were insane. Some of the people who were sent to the State
Hospital were orphans, retarded, senile, deaf, mute, homeless, destitute, etc..
Judges often just had nowhere else to put
them.
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James R. Baker
Jr.