Item Title
Agnews State Hospital, Women's Hydrotherapy Building, West Side of Avenue A near Second Street, Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, CA
LocationWest Side of Avenue A near Second Street,
Santa%252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252525252BClara, CA
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Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1933.
Notes
Survey number HABS CA-2710-W
Building/structure dates:
1938 initial construction
Building/structure dates:
1994 subsequent work
Building/structure dates:
1998 demolished
Significance: Building 32, the Hydrotherapy Wing for Women, is significant during the period from 1938 to 1941 as a component of the reconstruction of Agnews State Hospital in a pavilion plan. The 1907 design for the hospital symbolized not only a reconfiguration of buildings into smaller structures in a park-like setting, but an important change in the perspectives on and the treatment of patients. Agnews was the first mental facility in California to switch from the confinement and permanent housing of patients to humane treatment with the hope of release. Although constructed later than many of the buildings at Agnews, Building 32 and its counterpart, Building 31, Hydrotherapy Wing for Men, represent the treatment portion of the new plan. Through baths, warm packs and compresses, and the administration of mineral salts, patients were treated for mental illness in the hydrotherapy facilities of Building 32. In keeping with the pavilion model, the building was constructed as a small, specialized unit surrounded by grass and trees, and each room had ample windows to allow in light and air.
Related Names
Stock, Jody, Historian
Corbett, Michael, Historian
Collection
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)
Contents
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