Agnews State Hospital, 4000 Lafayette Road, Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, CA

Significance: Agnews was the first state hospital in the California system to adopt modern methods of treating mental patients on a large scale and was a widely recognized model of a progressive hospital. Dr. Leonard Stocking was superintendent of Agnews from 1904 to 1931. He was a strong leader who rebuilt Agnews after the earthquake of 1906 as a widely recognized model of a progressive state mental hospital. He was widely recognized as the "dean of psychiatrists in California." Agnews was the first hospital facility in California designed to accommodate progressive, humane approaches to treatment. Agnews served as a model for the construction of later hospitals. Agnews followed international precedents for scientific design based on the use of pavilions and was decentralized to provide several specialized buildings for different treatment purposes and different types of patients. Its small, low-scale buildings were designed to bring light and air to patients. Agnews embodied the distinctive characteristics of a mental hospital in that important period. It also represented the work of the office of the State Architect when the State Architect was the largest architectural office in California. It was an early example in the United States of a group of reinforced concrete buildings. And, it possessed high artistic value in its use of Beaux Arts and Garden City planning principles and in the eclectic style of its buildings which includes elements of the Arts and Crafts movement and northern European vernacular design.
Survey number: HABS CA-2710
Building/structure dates: 1906- ca. 1930 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1998 Subsequent Work