St . Elizabeths Hospital St . Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health . It was the first large - scale , federally run psychiatric hospital in the United States . Housing several thousand patients at its peak , St . Elizabeths had a fully functioning medical - surgical unit and offered accredited internships and psychiatric residencies . It has since fallen into disrepair and the grounds are mostly abandoned , although the east campus is still operational and it opened a new facility in 2010 . The Department of Homeland Security announced in March 2007 plans to relocate its headquarters , along with most of its Washington , D . C . - area facilities , to the abandoned federally owned western campus of St . Elizabeths , beginning in 2010 . History . The hospital was founded by the United States Congress in 1852 , largely as the result of the efforts of Dorothea Dix , a pioneering advocate for people living with mental illnesses . It opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane , and rose to prominence during the Civil War when it was converted temporarily into a hospital for wounded soldiers . During this time , the hospital temporarily housed animals which were brought back from expeditions for the Smithsonian Institution , because of lack of housing for the animals at the yet to be built National Zoo . In 1916 , its name was officially changed to St . Elizabeths , the colonial - era name for the tract of land on which the hospital was built . The hospital had been casually known by this name since the time of the Civil War , when — in their letters home to loved ones — patients of army hospitals temporarily located on the grounds were reluctant to refer to the institution by its full title . At its peak , the St . Elizabeths campus housed 8 , 000 patients and employed 4 , 000 people . Beginning in the 1950s , however , large institutions such as St . Elizabeths were being criticized for hindering the treatment of patients . Community - based health care , as specified in the passage of the 1963 Community Mental Health Act , led to deinstitutionalization . The act provided for local outpatient facilities and drug therapy as a more effective means of allowing patients to live near - normal lives . The patient population of St . Elizabeths steadily declined . By 1996 , only 850 patients remained at the hospital , and years of neglect had become apparent ; equipment and medicine shortages occurred frequently , and the heating system was broken for weeks at a time . By 2002 , all remaining patients on the federal western campus were transferred to other facilities . Although it continues to operate , it does so on a far smaller scale than it once did . As of January 31 , 2009 , the current patient census was 404 in - patients . Approximately half of St . Elizabeths patients are civilly committed , the other half are forensic ( criminal ) patients . Forensic patients are those who are adjudicated to be criminally insane ( not guilty by reason of insanity ) or incompetent to stand trial . Civil patients are those who were admitted due to an acute need for psychiatric care , without court involvement . Civil patients can be voluntarily or involuntarily committed . A new civil and forensic hospital was built on the East Campus by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health and opened in the spring of 2010 , housing approximately 297 patients . Civilly committed patients and forensic patients had traditionally been housed in separate facilities ( RMB and John Howard Pavilion respectively ) , until the new hospital opened . Most of St . Elizabeths ' patients , both civil and forensic , are now housed together in the new facility . The new hospital also houses a library , a velvet - curtained auditorium , multiple computer laboratories , a small museum in the lobby , and a group of large decorative glass butterflies suspended from the ceiling . In 2007 , the U . S . Department of Justice and the District of Columbia reached a settlement over allegations that the civil rights of patients housed at St . Elizabeths were violated by the District . As of April 16 , 2008 , St . Elizabeths is in " substantial noncompliance " with the terms of the Settlement Agreement . Patients . Well - known patients of St . Elizabeths include would - be presidential assassins Richard Lawrence ( who attempted to kill Andrew Jackson ) and more recently John Hinckley , Jr . who shot Ronald Reagan , as well as the successful assassin of James Garfield , Charles J . Guiteau ( until his execution ) . Other notable residents were Mary Fuller , James Swann , Ezra Pound and William Chester Minor . According to Kelly Patricia O ' Meara , St . Elizabeths is believed to have treated over 125 , 000 patients , though an exact number is not known due to poor recordkeeping . Additionally , she believes that thousands of patients are buried in unmarked graves across the campus , although records for the individuals buried in the graves have been lost . She believes that the incinerator on site also brings up a few questions as to what may have happened to the bodies . The General Services Administration , current owner of the property , considered using ground penetrating radar to attempt to locate unmarked graves but has yet to do so . More than 15 , 000 known autopsies were performed at St . Elizabeths between 1884 and 1982 , and a collection of over 1 , 400 brains preserved in formaldehyde , 5 , 000 photographs of brains , and 100 , 000 slides of brain tissue was maintained by the hospital until it was transferred to a museum in 1986 , according to O ' Meara . In addition to the mental health patients buried on the campus , several hundred American Civil War soldiers are interred at St . Elizabeths as well . Contributions to medicine . Several important therapeutic techniques were pioneered at St . Elizabeths , and it served as a model for later institutions . Carl Jung , for example , studied African - American patients at St . Elizabeths to examine the concept of race in mental health . Walter Freeman , onetime laboratory director , was inspired by St . Elizabeths to pioneer the transorbital lobotomy . During American involvement in World War II , the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS , predecessor to the CIA ) used facilities and staff at St . Elizabeths hospital to test " truth serums " . OSS unsuccessfully tested a mescaline and scopolamine cocktail as a truth drug on two volunteers at St . Elizabeths Hospital . Separate tests of THC as a truth serum were equally unsuccessful . Facilities and grounds . The campus of St . Elizabeths sits on bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers in the southeast quadrant of Washington , D . C . It is divided by Martin Luther King , Jr . Avenue between the east campus ( owned by the D . C . Government ) and the west campus ( owned by the Federal Government ) . It has many important buildings , foremost among them the Center Building , designed according to the principles of the Kirkbride Plan by Thomas U . Walter ( 1804 – 1887 ) , who is better known as the primary architect of the expansion of the U . S . Capitol that was begun in 1851 . Much of St . Elizabeths ' campus has now fallen into disuse and is in serious disrepair . It has been named one of the nation ' s 11 Most Endangered Places in 2002 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation . Access to many areas of the campus , including the abandoned western campus ( which houses the Center Building ) is restricted . Revitalization plans for western campus . After several decades in decline , the large campus could not be maintained . In 1987 , hospital functions on the eastern campus were transferred from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to the District of Columbia government , with the federal government retaining ownership of the western campus . Several commercial redevelopment opportunities were proposed by the D . C . government and consultants , including relocating the University of the District of Columbia to the campus or developing office and retail space . However , the tremendous cost of bringing the facilities up to code ( estimated at $ 50 – $ 100 million ) kept developers away . With little interest in developing the site privately , the Federal Government stepped in . Control of the western campus — home of the oldest building on the campus , the Center Building — was transferred to the General Services Administration in 2004 . The GSA improved security around the campus , shored up roofs , and covered the windows with plywood in an attempt to preserve the campus until a tenant could be found . After three years of searching for an occupant , the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) announced on March 20 , 2007 that it would spend approximately US $ 4 . 1 billion to move its headquarters and most of its Washington - based offices to a new facility on the site , beginning with the United States Coast Guard in 2010 . DHS , whose operations are scattered around dozens of buildings in the Washington , D . C . area , hopes to consolidate at least 60 of its facilities at St . Elizabeths and to save $ 64 million per year in rental costs . DHS also hopes to improve employee morale and unity by having a central location from which to operate . The plans to locate DHS to St . Elizabeths have been met with criticism , however . Historic preservation ists argue that the move will destroy dozens of historic buildings located on the campus and that other alternatives should be considered . Community activists have also expressed concern that the planned high - security facility will not interact with the surrounding community and do little to revitalize the economically depressed area . In 2007 , the District of Columbia reached a deal with the Department of Justice and agreed to fix widespread health and safety hazards in the hospital . A ceremonial groundbreaking for the DHS consolidated headquarters took place at St . Elizabeths on September 11 , 2009 . The event was attended by Senator Joseph Lieberman , DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano , DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton , DC Mayor Adrian Fenty , and acting GSA Administrator Paul Prouty . As of April 2012 , the relocated Coast Guard headquarters was forecast to open in May 2013 , and a ceremony was held in July 2013 at the site before it is to be officially opened . Popular Culture . The hospital was referred to in an episode of the television series , " Bonanza ” . The episode was named , “ The Unseen Wound ” , featuring Leslie Nielsen as a sheriff , playing a former Civil War era Army officer who falls victim to PTSD , although it was not referred to as such in the script . Portions of the west campus can be seen in the film , " A Few Good Men . " NPR interns toured the east and west campuses , and shared their experiences in 2010 .