This is fascinating, this history I am learning about our area. It was originally called Lunatic Asylum #3, in 1889, but it seems there was positive therapeutic aspects rather than just being a lock up:
” The asylum was physically self-sufficient from the beginning. Spread out across 520 acres, it had its own water supply, laundry facilities, power plant, and telephone systems, as well as gardens, a lake, greenhouses, a dairy, a hennery, and a hog farm, all of which aided in the production of food stuffs and provided occupational therapy for inmates. In addition to the main building, the complex contained numerous support buildings, structures, and outbuildings, including an ice plant, power plant, cannery, fire engine house, carpenter shop, barns, and silos.”
