Just want to give a bit more information about Agnews State Hospital/Agnews Developmental Center/Sun Microsystems Corporate campus since there seem to be many questions about the facility... Agnews was 'born' in 1885 by the California State Legislature to house the mentally ill. It was called Agnews Residential Facility and its official job was to treat and care for the 'neuropsychiatric patient'. The first patient was admitted in 1889. It was the third state institution for the insane. The largest number of fatalities in Santa Clara County caused by the 1906 Earthquake was at Agnews. Approximately 117 patients died when the multi-storied unreinforced masonry building fell. When the facility was being rebuilt, rather that build up; cottages were built around the grounds to house the patients. Other mental institutions began to use this same type of architecture for their patients following the Agnews model. The idea was to have treatment in a separate building from where the patients 'lived', giving the patients more light and fresh air instead of the typical asylum treatment. With better understanding of mental illness and the advent of outpatient treatment of the mentally ill, Agnews began to take developmentally disabled patients as well as the mentally ill in about 1965. In 1971 the Lanterman Act passed and was signed by then Governor Reagan, shutting down Agnews but ONLY AS A MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY. It continued to have developmentally disabled clients until March 2009! In 1996 California put up for sale much of the land that had been the Agnews State Hospital...it was called surplus state land. The community wanted to have some say in what would become of this historic area and the hospital was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Sun Microsystems invested 10 million dollars to make improvements to the historically significant buildings on the site. The auditorium and the mansion are available for groups to rent for gatherings on nights and weekends and are said to be as beautiful now as when they were built in 1913. Although the last 'client' moved from Agnews in 2009, there is still a non-emergency medical clinic on the grounds to address the needs of the developmentally disabled in an out patient setting. Sun Microsystems became a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle on January 27, 2010. All the above information I got from calling the City of Santa Clara and doing some online research. The rest of these rambling thoughts are mine... Everyone who had a relative at Agnews or any mental health facility has a story. Those of us who do genealogy seem to run across this more that the average person! Why did men have their wives 'put away'? Why did the eccentric woman on the corner have to go to 'get well'? Why did the first cousin once removed of my cousins aunt never come back? I think that we all have questions about someone in our family. That we can't get records from these institutions, in many cases is a brick wall in our genealogical search. At that time NO ONE spoke about 'those things'. I believe that many were thinking "There but for the grace of God go I". Unfortunately we don't have documents from or about the inmates at Agnews...perhaps it's better that way. Psychiatric treatment in the first half of the 20th Century and even later was NOT something that most people wanted to learn about. It was about keeping the patients under control and if that took restraints, lobotomies, electro-shock therapy, or massive doses of drugs that is what happened. We'll probably never know all of the 'whys'. I'm sure many were admitted without what we now would call a substantive reason. I wonder what our descendants will say in a hundred years about 'tough love', teen 'Boot Camp', and other things we understand COMPLETELY now. I journal...everything! My kids are going to learn some really racy things about their grandmother when I'm gone! I figure I want my descendants to know the good, bad, and BETTER about my life and those who are in it...straight from ME! Perrin

Nice going Perrin & you're right - Sun. Part of my old team went to Cisco, part to Sun. I razzed them about being Agnews inmates. Not PC but . . . My great-uncle was sent to Napa because no one wanted to bother with him. He was a forceps baby with one eye socket crushed & he was a bit slow. It was so bad his brother finally took him in. Those places were anything but nice. Jim -- James R. Smith Author/Speaker/Researcher Author: San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks California Snatch Racket, June 2010 San Francisco's Playland at the Beach: The Early Years, Nov 2010 www.HistorySmith.com Perrin Larton wrote: > Just want to give a bit more information about Agnews State > Hospital/Agnews Developmental Center/Sun Microsystems Corporate campus > since there seem to be many questions about the facility... > > Agnews was 'born' in 1885 by the California State Legislature to house the > mentally ill. It was called Agnews Residential Facility and its official > job was to treat and care for the 'neuropsychiatric patient'. The first > patient was admitted in 1889. It was the third state institution for the > insane. > > The largest number of fatalities in Santa Clara County caused by the 1906 > Earthquake was at Agnews. Approximately 117 patients died when the > multi-storied unreinforced masonry building fell. When the facility was > being rebuilt, rather that build up; cottages were built around the > grounds to house the patients. Other mental institutions began to use > this same type of architecture for their patients following the Agnews > model. The idea was to have treatment in a separate building from where > the patients 'lived', giving the patients more light and fresh air instead > of the typical asylum treatment. > > With better understanding of mental illness and the advent of outpatient > treatment of the mentally ill, Agnews began to take developmentally > disabled patients as well as the mentally ill in about 1965. In 1971 the > Lanterman Act passed and was signed by then Governor Reagan, shutting down > Agnews but ONLY AS A MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY. It continued to have > developmentally disabled clients until March 2009! > > In 1996 California put up for sale much of the land that had been the > Agnews State Hospital...it was called surplus state land. The community > wanted to have some say in what would become of this historic area and the > hospital was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Sun > Microsystems invested 10 million dollars to make improvements to the > historically significant buildings on the site. The auditorium and the > mansion are available for groups to rent for gatherings on nights and > weekends and are said to be as beautiful now as when they were built in > 1913. > > Although the last 'client' moved from Agnews in 2009, there is still a > non-emergency medical clinic on the grounds to address the needs of the > developmentally disabled in an out patient setting. > > Sun Microsystems became a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle on January 27, > 2010. > > All the above information I got from calling the City of Santa Clara and > doing some online research. > > The rest of these rambling thoughts are mine... > > Everyone who had a relative at Agnews or any mental health facility has a > story. Those of us who do genealogy seem to run across this more that the > average person! Why did men have their wives 'put away'? Why did the > eccentric woman on the corner have to go to 'get well'? Why did the first > cousin once removed of my cousins aunt never come back? I think that we > all have questions about someone in our family. That we can't get records > from these institutions, in many cases is a brick wall in our genealogical > search. At that time NO ONE spoke about 'those things'. I believe that > many were thinking "There but for the grace of God go I". > > Unfortunately we don't have documents from or about the inmates at > Agnews...perhaps it's better that way. Psychiatric treatment in the first > half of the 20th Century and even later was NOT something that most people > wanted to learn about. It was about keeping the patients under control > and if that took restraints, lobotomies, electro-shock therapy, or massive > doses of drugs that is what happened. > > We'll probably never know all of the 'whys'. I'm sure many were admitted > without what we now would call a substantive reason. I wonder what our > descendants will say in a hundred years about 'tough love', teen 'Boot > Camp', and other things we understand COMPLETELY now. > > I journal...everything! My kids are going to learn some really racy > things about their grandmother when I'm gone! I figure I want my > descendants to know the good, bad, and BETTER about my life and those who > are in it...straight from ME! > > Perrin > > > > > ----------------------------------------- > NORCAL ARCHIVES: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. > Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. > ----------------------------------------- > To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to NORCAL@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >