Western North Carolina Insane Asylum

About this property

Broughton Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in Morganton, North Carolina. It is administered by North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. In 1850, influential mental health activist Dorothea Dix petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly to support and build a psychiatric hospital to treat the mentally ill. Within 25 years the General Assembly determined that one hospital was insufficient to care for the population of people afflicted with mental illness. In 1875, the State provided $75,000 for the establishment of a second psychiatric hospital. Built in Morganton on 283 acres (115 ha) of land, Western Carolina Insane Asylum, opened on March 29, 1883. The asylum admitted physician Dr. Red Pepper as its first patient. By 1884 its first director, Dr. Patrick Livingston Murphy, reported to the General Assembly that more space was needed. In 1885 and 1886 two new wings were opened, expanding the hospital's bed space to over 500 mentally ill patients. In 1890 the hospital's name was changed to State Hospital at Morganton, a name it kept until 1959. Patients were used to construct roads on the property, and establish and maintain the gardens and grounds. By 1893 the hospital's holdings would encompass over 300 acres (120 ha). During the early 1900s the hospital expanded greatly. Using the colony system, a farm area was established with a dairy, vineyard and greenhouses, all staffed by patients of varying degrees of functionality. The hospital was nearly self-sufficient. Additional expansions and land holdings would take place until just after World War I when public attitudes about patients with mental illness changed dramatically. The hospital, like many others of this time period, was neglected and suffered during the state and national financial problems of the Great Depression. During the 1920s, the patient-to-physician ratio was 300-to-1; by the 1930s this was almost 500-to-1. Hours for attendants and nurses were intensive, and time off was sparse. Attendants usually slept in the same wards with patients until further expansion during the 1940s. By that time, the hospital's census topped 3,500 patients. In 1959, State Hospital at Morganton became Broughton Hospital, named after World War II Governor J. Melville Broughton. The 1960s brought many changes to Broughton: educational programs were established, religious services were incorporated, and the hospital continued to expand (including through affiliated local community health centers). This was part of an effort to de-institutionalize individuals with mental illness and treat more in local settings. During the 1970s Broughton underwent changes in its housing procedures. Up to that time, its population had been drawn geographically, meaning patients were being housed according to where they were from, rather than by age or disability. On March 28, 1973, Broughton Hospital received its first survey by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and the hospital received a one-year accreditation.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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