St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Southeast, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: Advocated for as early as the 1830s and initially developed in the 1850s, the West Campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital is a nationally and perhaps
internationally significant historic resource that documents in physical form the evolution of medical treatment for mental health patients in the United States. Positioned on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Potomac
and Anacostia Rivers, this approximately 176-acre property commands an impressive panorama. The site selection, site planning for the buildings, and
development of the hospital grounds integrate the landscape with the medical treatment of patients. This was a remarkable innovation in this type of
institution marking a shift away from incarceration treatment toward active therapeutic treatment of mental illness. The historic significance of St.
Elizabeths Hospital is nationally recognized by incorporation on national and local historic district registers. The campus including the cultural landscape is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The campus was
designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991, and received District of Columbia
Historic District Designation in May of 2005.
The St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus cultural landscape incorporates historic significance to varying degrees in all four National Register criteria. The cultural landscape of the hospital is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of United States history. The historic campus remains a largely intact testament to the history of the social reform movement and the history of mental health care in the United States. The West Campus is also associated with the lives of persons significant in the past including social reformer Dorothea Lynde Dix, mental health advocate Dr. Charles H. Nichols and architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter. The origin of the first national mental health institution lies in the lobbying efforts of Dorothea Dix and in the planning and design of the initial grounds and buildings by first Superintendent Charles Nichols and Thomas Walter. Important asylum planners including psychiatrist Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride and landscape architect Andrew J. Downing inspired Dr. Charles Nichols and Thomas Walter. In addition, the southern expansion of the West Campus under Superintendent Alonzo Richardson was carried out by architects Shepley Rutan and Coolidge and influenced by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and the Olmsted Brothers. The cultural landscape of the hospital continues to embody the distinctive characteristics of a type and period of construction. The West Campus exists as one of the few surviving nineteenth-century hospitals where the therapeutic use of the grounds was designed as an essential component of the health and healing of patients. The St. Elizabeths Hospital landscape bears evidence of the evolution of hospital design from its origin in the 1850s to its complete development in the early 1940s.
Survey number: HALS DC-11
Building/structure dates: 1853- ca. 1855 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 79003101