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Wyoming State Insane Asylum

 
 

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Also known as the Wyoming State Hospital, the Wyoming State Insane Asylum encompasses 24 of the 154 current campus acres and is owned by the State of Wyoming. The district consists of fifteen contributing buildings, two noncontributing buildings and one contributing object. The buildings include the main administration building with patient dormitory wings, four separate patient dormitories, employee dormitory, staff apartment complex, three staff houses, cafeteria, two farm outbuildings, three maintenance buildings, and a noncontributing recreation center. The object is a cobblerock entrance at the main entrance to the hospital. The buildings show influences of late Victorian, and/or late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century Revival styles. The farm outbuildings and utilitarian buildings are vernacular. The hospital was established in 1887. Its remaining historic resources were constructed over a course of forty years beginning with the oldest dormitory on campus dating to 1907/1908 and ending with the staff apartment complex, two staff houses, and cafeteria that all date to 1948. Cheyenne architect William Dubois is responsible for the design of six separate large dormitories dating from 1907-1935.

The Wyoming State Insane Asylum has historical significance on several counts. First, the Asylum has state significance, both as an institution for the care of the mentally ill and in the organization and architecture of its buildings because, during the period of significance, the Asylum reflected contemporary thinking about and trends in the treatment of mental illness. Second, the Asylum is significant to the State of Wyoming because, from its inception to the present, the institution has served the population of the entire state of Wyoming as its only institution for the treatment of the mentally ill. In addition, several of the contributing structures in the district were designed by distinguished Wyoming architect William Dubois. Finally, the Asylum has great significance on the local level, as it has been a dominant feature of the Evanston landscape--physically, socially, and economically--since 1887.

 
Wyoming-Insane-Asylum

 

Date Added to Register:
Thursday, February 27, 2003
 
Location:
Evanston
 
County:
Uinta County
 
Smithsonian Number: 
48UT266