I had a friend that worked at the State Hospital on a construction project probably in the 70's. As they were working one of the patients wearing a long overcoat watched them pouring concret setting forms and such. After they were done he stated that will never pass inspection. The next day sure enough it did not pass the inspection, this friend asked him how he knew this and what was he doing as a patient. His reply was that he was an engineer and he got tired of the ratrace of the "real world", checked himself in to the hospital. He said I got a bed and three good meals a day and don't have to work, then just turned around and walked off. There were many reasons why people were in the State Hospital. When it first started they produced all food, beef, pork, milk and vegetables for the hospital and sold the excess for revnue. Then that was deemed unfair to the residents, so then they just got to sit and do nothing basically. All of the buildings on the hospital grounds were connected by tunnels, you could go anywhere on the complex and never have to go outside, the tunnel went under what is today Ash street to the building that was across the street on the East side of Ash. The state of Mo had just spent millions of dollars redoing the main building a year or two before they closed it and now it has been torn down, now that is your tax dollars put to work for you. They also used to take people there for the drunk tank, when there was public intoxication, I know this happened in the 70's. Lisa Handly-Stewart