Agnews State Hospital, Men's Hydrotherapy Building, West side of Avenue A near Fifth Street, Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, CA

Significance: Building 31, the Hydrotherapy Wing for Men, 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 31 and its counterpart, Building 32, Hydrotherapy Wing for Women, 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 31. 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.
Survey number: HABS CA-2710-V
Building/structure dates: 1938 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: before 1984 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1994 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1998 Demolished