Agnews State Hospital, Superintendent's Residence, North Side of Palm Drive, Santa Clara, Santa Clara County, CA

Significance: Building 100 is significant as an integral component of the 1908 reconstruction of Agnews State Hospital in a pavilion plan. The new plan for the hospital represented not only a reconfiguration of functions into smaller buildings in a park-like setting, but an important change in the perspectives on and treatment of patients. Agnews State Hospital was the first mental facility in California to switch from the confinement and permanent housing of patients to scientific treatment with the hope of release. Building 100 served as the superintendent's residence at the hospital. Building 100 is also important as the residence of one superintendent in particular, Dr. Leonard Stocking. Stocking served as superintendent of Agnews from 1904 to 1931 and lived in the residence from its completion in 1915 until his death in 1931. Dr. Stocking redesigned Angews State Hospital in collaboration with the state architect after the 1906 earthquake destroyed most of the hospital buildings. Stocking intended the new Agnews to be a thoroughly modern hospital built according to the pavilion plan, as fire and earthquake proof as possible, and incorporated humane therapy facilities for patients. For his work in the treatment of the mentally ill, Stocking was called, "one of the leading psychiatrists on the coast."
Survey number: HABS CA-2710-AA
Building/structure dates: 1915 Initial Construction