Spring Grove State Hospital

Founded in 1797, Spring Grove State Hospital, now known as Spring Grove Hospital Center, is the second oldest continuously operating state psychiatric hospital in the country. This volume will reveal through a broad array of poignant historic images the extensive, complex, and fascinating history of Maryland's oldest hospital. Included are interior and exterior photographs of many of the hospital's historic buildings, as well as depictions of daily life at the hospital during a bygone era. The institution's historic pedigree includes its role as a hospital for soldiers and sailors wounded in the Battle of North Point during the War of 1812, and Spring Grove's Main Building may have been used to quarter soldiers during the Civil War. Once a largely self-contained asylum, Spring Grove's history is closely tied to the crusader Dorothea Dix, as well as to many more recent treatment advances.

Psychiatrist David S. Helsel, M.D., serves as the current superintendent of Spring Grove Hospital Center. Trevor J. Blank is a graduate student at Indiana University's Folklore Institute and is the founder of the Hillcrest Historical Society, a Baltimore County historic preservation group that worked to save Spring Grove's former maximum-security building.