Napa State Hospital is a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

Napa, California Napa is the largest city and county seat of Napa County and a principal city of Wine Country in Northern California. Located in the North Bay region of the Bay Area, the city had a population of 77,480 as of the end of 2021. Napa is a major t ...

, founded in 1875. It is located along

California State Route 221 State Route 221 (SR 221) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that runs in and just outside the City of Napa, providing access to Napa Valley College and Napa State Hospital. The highway's southern terminus is with State Route 1 ...

, the Napa- Vallejo Highway, and is one of California's five state hospitals. Napa State Hospital holds civil and

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

patients in a sprawling 138-acre campus. According to a hospital spokesperson, there were 2,338 people employed at the facility during the 2016 to 2017 fiscal year, making it one of the region's largest employers. The Napa Valley Cricket Club played a number of their matches at McGrath Field, a multi-use sports field, at the eastern end of the Napa State Hospital campus for the 2017 season.

History

The property was originally part of Rancho Tulucay, part of a Mexican Land Grant, sold by Cayetano Juarez to the State of California in 1872. Originally named Napa Insane Asylum, the facility opened on November 15, 1875. It sat on of property stretching from the

Napa River The Napa River is a river approximately long in the U.S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region called the Napa Valley, in the mountains north of the San Francisco Bay. Milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few ...

to what is now Skyline Park. The facility was originally built to relieve overcrowding at Stockton Asylum. By the early 1890s, the facility had over 1,300 patients which was over double the original capacity it was designed to house. In 1893, the

Mendocino State Hospital Mendocino State Hospital, formally known as Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane, was a psychiatric hospital in Talmage near Ukiah, California, was established in 1889 and in operation from July 1893 to 1972. The hospital programs included the ...

was opened and relieved some of the overcrowding at the Napa State Hospital. The original main building known as "The Castle" was an ornate and imposing building constructed with bricks. Facilities on the property included a large farm that included dairy and poultry ranches, vegetable garden, and fruit orchards that provided a large part of the food supply consumed by the residents. "The Castle" main building was torn down after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. This hospital was one of the many state asylums that had sterilization centers. Approximately 4,000 former patients are buried in a field at the Napa State Hospital, and about 1,400 people were buried at the Sonoma Regional Center (now North Bay Regional Center). In 1978, this hospital was the site of

The Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. ...

concert, when several patients attempted to escape.

Notable patients

* Edward Charles Allaway - mass murderer; transferred to Napa in 2016 *

Richard Allen Davis Richard Allen Davis (born June 2, 1954) is an American convicted murderer whose criminal record fueled support for the passage of California's "three-strikes law" for repeat offenders and the involuntary civil commitment act for sex offenders a ...

- murderer and career criminal; was sent to Napa after faking a suicide attempt so he could escape in 1976 * Charles E. Huber - businessman; was admitted after increasingly bizarre and violent behavior *

Chol Soo Lee Chol Soo Lee (August 15, 1952 - December 2, 2014) was a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 murder of Yip Yee Tak, a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader, and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was sen ...

- immigrant accused of murder; was admitted following a suicide attempt while incarcerated in 1966 *

Eddie Machen Edward Mills "Eddie" Machen (June 15, 1932 – August 8, 1972) was an American professional boxer. He was one of 6 children of a rural mail carrier. Machen dropped out of high school and became an amateur boxer. However, after just 3 bouts he wa ...

- boxer; admitted for threatening suicide in 1962 * Earle Nelson – serial killer; was sent to Napa several times and escaped prior to his killings * Henry Peavey - cook and valet for

William Desmond Taylor William Desmond Taylor (born William Cunningham Deane-Tanner, 26 April 1872 – 1 February 1922) was an Anglo-Irish-American film director and actor. A popular figure in the growing Hollywood motion picture colony of the 1910s and early 1920s, ...

; was admitted after being diagnosed with syphilis * Bull Perrine - baseball umpire; was admitted due to failing health and later died in Napa * William G. Sebold - German U.S. citizen and spy; admitted for manic depression in 1965 * Scott Harlan Thorpe - spree killer; sentenced to Napa * Clarice Vance - vaudeville personality; died in Napa after being admitted for failing health *

Carleton Watkins Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916) was an American photographer of the 19th century. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a ...

- photographer; was admitted by his daughter

Notable staff

* Matilda Allison - educator who taught blind veterans at Napa *

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802July 17, 1887) was an American advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first gen ...

- psychiatric reformer * Meredith Hodges - psychiatric technician *

Thomas Story Kirkbride Thomas Story Kirkbride (July 31, 1809December 16, 1883) was a physician, alienist, hospital superintendent for the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and primary founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institution ...

- physician

In popular culture

* The hospital comes up several times in '' The 6th Target'' by

James Patterson James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the '' Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', '' Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' ...

and

Maxine Paetro Maxine Paetro is an American author who has been published since 1979. Paetro has collaborated with best-selling author James Patterson on the Women’s Murder Club novel series and standalone novels. Biography From 1975 until 1987, Paetro was a ...

References

External links