1849: A Commodious House

1855: Early Obstacles

1865-1875: A Period of Rebuilding

1880-1925: The Hospital Expands

1925-1940: Continued Growth

1900: A Self-Sufficient Community

1956: From the Ashes

1937: Biggs Center for the Criminally Insane

1984: End of the Farm

On September 7, 1863, the asylum reopened but, due to limited resources, admitted only one hundred patients. When legislative support increased after the war, the institution's population soared to 369 by 1868. For the first time, in the fall of 1865, "colored" patients were among those admitted. However, by 1868 Superintendent Charles Hughes recommended that the "colored" patients be housed in a separate structure from the whites.

"So great has been the demand for admissions during the last two months, we have been compelled to discharge some of our most unimproving cases of long standing to make room."

Superintendent T. R. H. Smith, 1873

Missouri State Lunatic Asylum, c. 1875
Missouri State Archives