The words “asylum”, “feeble minded”, “incurable” and “insane” seem to have been replaced in the state institutional system of Illinois around 1909 when the board of commissioners and the Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities were abolished. At that time, control of all state charitable institutions passed to the newly created Board of Administration and the new name for these institutions became “state hospital”.

The Civil Administrative Code of 1917 transferred jurisdiction of the institutions to the Department of Public Welfare. In 1961, when the Department of Public Welfare was abolished, the Department of Mental Health assumed responsibility for the hospitals and they were thus renamed again.

In 1997 the Department of Mental Health was abolished and the newly formed Department of Human Services assumed responsibility for 10 psychiatric hospitals previously under the Department of Mental Health.

The Department of Human Services is divided into “divisions” which are divided into “offices”. Mental health services are covered by the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services. Mental Health falls under the Office of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities falls under the Office of Developmental Disabilities. Thus some “state hospitals” became “mental health centers” some “developmental centers” and some are both.

This constant change of names caused by politics and changing ideas about the mentally ill seems to have caused much confusion when attempting to track each hospital’s history.

Here, I attempt to provide the reader with the year each institution opened and closed, it’s “state hospital name”, it’s present name and all known aliases.

1851 – Jacksonville State Hospital	Jacksonville Developmental Center (Jacksonville) Eastern State Hospital for the Insane Illinois State Hospital for the Insane Illinois Central Hospital for the Insane Jacksonville Mental Health and Developmental Center
1869 – Chicago State Hospital Featured Link: Cook County Institution at Dunning (Abandoned Asylum)	Chicago Read Mental Health Center (Chicago) Cook County Institution at Dunning Dunning Farm Dunning Asylum Dunning Mental Institute Read Mental Health Facility Charles F. Read Zone Center
1872 – Elgin State Hospital	Elgin Mental Health Center (Elgin) Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane
1875 – Anna State Hospital	Choate Mental Health Center (Anna) Southern Illinois Hospital for the Insane Anna Mental Health and Developmental Center Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center
1879 – Kankakee State Hospital	Shapiro Developmental Center (Kankakee) Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane Kankakee Mental Health Center Kankakee Developmental Center Governor Samuel H. Shapiro Developmental Center
1891 – Chester State Hospital (Photo credit – Illinois State Historical Library)	Chester Mental Health Center (Chester) “maximum security treatment” Asylum for Insane Criminals Illinois Security Hospital at Menard Chester State Hospital for Insane Criminals
1898 – Watertown State Hospital	East Moline Mental Health Center (East Moline) Closed in 1979 Now East Moline Correctional Center Homeopathic Asylum Western Hospital for the Insane East Moline State Hospital
1902 – Peoria State Hospital	Peoria State Hospital (Bartonville) Closed in 1973 Peoria State Hospital for the Incurable Insane Illinois General Hospital for the Insane Bartonville State Hospital Bartonville Asylum
1916 – Alton State Hospital	Alton Mental Health Center (Alton)
1918 – Dixon State Hospital	Jack Mabley Developmental Center (Dixon) Dixon State School Illinois State Colony for Epileptics Dixon Developmental Center
1929 – Manteno State Hospital	Manteno Mental Health Center (Manteno) Closed in 1985
1949 – Galesburg State Hospital Featured Link: Galesburg State Hospital (Chuck’s Photo Spot)	Galesburg Mental Health Center (Galesburg) Closed 1985 Mayo General Hospital Galesburg State Research Hospital
1958 - Tinley Park State Hospital (Opened January 2, 1958)	Tinley Park Mental Health Center (Tinley Park) Tinley Park Mental Health Center (also William A. Howe Developmental Center at Tinley Park)

*This is not a complete list of facilities that cared for the mentally ill in the State of Illinois. This is a list of only those, that at one time, had been named “state hospital” most of which are the oldest such institutions in the state.