Terrell State Hospital

Before Terrell, Texans with serious mental illness were often held in county jails and poorhouses, places the Handbook of Texas calls incapable of treating them. The 1883 law required the new institution to stand north of the Texas and Pacific tracks, and a Terrell committee lobbied state officials, who chose 672.65 acres a mile northeast of town. It opened July 14, 1885, as the North Texas Lunatic Asylum for the "chronic incurable insane," its own period term, and was renamed in 1888 and again in 1925. Its first superintendent had treated Empress Carlota of Mexico.

What the plaque says

Terrell State Hospital Authorized 1883 by Legislature of Texas. Designed by J. N. Preston and sons, Austin. Built by John M'Donald. Opened in 1885 under administration of Dr. D. R. Wallace, superintendent, who was an internationally recognized pioneer psychiatrist. Admitted 330 patients during first year. Gradually enlarged with 2,300 patients by 1920; it was largest hospital of its kind west of Mississippi. No original buildings are left. Only the fountain in circular park and water tower remain from old hospital grounds. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 1.6 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 17 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Marrs, S. M. N. — 0.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Terrell — 0.8 mi
• The American National Bank of Terrell — 0.9 mi
• Homesite of Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt — 0.9 mi