page_title: Agnews Developmental Center
section_title: West campus closure
hierarchical_section_title: Agnews Developmental Center / West campus closure
context_page_description: Agnews Developmental Center was a psychiatric and medical care facility, located in Santa Clara, California.
  In 1885, the center, originally known as "The Great Asylum for the Insane", was established as a facility for the care of the mentally ill. The main structure, a red brick edifice, was located on land near Agnew's Village, which later became part of Santa Clara. By the early twentieth century, Agnews boasted the largest institutional population in the South San Francisco Bay area, and was served by its own train station which stood at the west end of Palm Drive across Lafayette Street; the station building remained until vandalism and fire precipitated its demolition in the 1990s.
  In 1926, the center was expanded to include a second campus about 2 miles to the east in San Jose. Individuals with developmental disabilities were first admitted to a special rehabilitation program in 1965. Programs for the mentally ill were discontinued in 1972. From then to 2011, when the property was sold, the center was used for the care and treatment of persons with developmental disabilities.
context_section_description: The original west campus was closed in 1998 as part of a plan to reduce and eventually close the center. When the west campus closed, the use of the land was the subject of local controversy.  In April 1997, it was announced the state would sell an 82.5-acre (33.4 ha) parcel of the campus to Sun Microsystems for its corporate headquarters and R&D campus.  Some objected to the arranged sale of this prime public land to a profitable corporation at the peak of a local economic and real-estate boom, while others valued the presence of a prominent high-tech employer.  Also at issue was the preservation of and public access to historic Agnews Developmental Center buildings.  Sun agreed to restore four of the historic buildings (the auditorium, the clock tower, the superintendent's villa, and the administration building) and to keep some of the facilities available for public use.  An outdoor exhibit open to the public displays information and photographs regarding the center and its history.
  In addition to the Sun deal, the Rivermark planned community was allocated 152 acres (62 ha) for a variety of residential, retail, public school, and open space uses.
  The Agnews site was added to the National Register of Historic Places (under the name "Agnews Insane Asylum") on August 13, 1997.
  Sun was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010; the campus continues to be used as an Oracle R&D facility and conference center.
caption: Aerial photograph of the Oracle campus at the former Agnews west campus
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