Milwaukee County Asylum

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Milwaukee County Asylum
Construction Began 1878
Opened 1880
Demolished 1976
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Single Building
Location Milwaukee, WI
Alternate Names County Farm for Inebriates and Idiots

Milwaukee County Retreat for Weak and Feeble Minded Persons

Milwaukee County Asylum for the Chronic Insane



History

Milwaukee's first mental hospital, known as the Milwaukee County Asylum for the Chronic Insane, opened in 1880 on the County Grounds in Wauwatosa. The state reimbursed the county $1.50 a week for every patient in its care. At the peak of institutionalization in the 1940s and '50s, Milwaukee County housed some 6,000 people with mental illness in several locations. Accommodations were anything but lavish, usually two to a room, sleeping on cots and sharing a sink. There was no psychiatry or meaningful therapy, said Bill Baker, who worked there as an internist. People were basically drugged and warehoused.

The infirmary was torn down in the mid 1970s and replaced with a parking lot. The Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex was built to replace it.

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