Spring Grove State Hospital (Catonsville, Md.)

The Maryland Hospital for the Insane was renamed as Spring Grove State Hospital in 1912 when funds were approriated for additional hospital buildings (Laws of 1912, ch. 187). While the hospital continued unchanged for several years, World War I affected Spring Grove in diverse ways. First, construction of a major medical building (the Psychopathic Building) wa delayed by the demands of a wartime economy. Then, in 1918, the U.S. Veterans' Bureau, recognizing the impending need for a facility in which to treat mentally ill casualties, urged the Maryland Council of Defence to appropriate enough money to complete the building's construction. The structure was completed, and between 1920 and 1925 several hundred soldiers and sailors were treated in its Foster Clinic. In July 1925, the remaining Veteran's Bureau patients were moved to a new federal hospital at Perry Point, Maryland.

The State Government Reorganization Act of 1922 resulted in Spring Grove being placed under the Department of Welfare and its administrating Board of Welfare (Laws of 1922, ch. 29, art. vii). The same law also created the Board of Mental Hygiene, which was directly responsible for the state mental hospital system. Despite the new levels of administration, however, daily operation of Spring Grove remained the responsibility of its Board of Managers.

Throughout the 1920s, the hospital expanded its land holdings and constructed new buildings. During the Depression, Spring Grove began a research program with Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Phipps Clinic, and the University of Maryland Hospital. Joint research included shock therapy and pre-frontal lobotomy. In addition, Spring Grove began to psychoanalyze some patients. In 1939, the Board of Mental Hygiene assumed the physician appointment authority formerly held by the Hospital's Board of Managers (Laws of 1939, ch. 120).

After World War II, Spring Grove, along with the other state hospitals, suffered from chronic overcrowding. Following a largely unfavorable report by the American Psychiatric Association and extensive "bad press" in the local media, the legislature revamped the state mental hospital system (Laws of 1949, ch. 275). Thereafter, a newly formed Department of Mental Hygiene took control of the state hospital system, including Spring Grove State Hospital. The Board of Managers was abolished and its authority transferred to the new superintendent appointed by the commissioner of Mental Hygiene. Despite his efforts, overcrowding continued to plague Spring Grove for decades. For example, while the acceptable capacity was below 2,000 patients, the patient population at Spring Grove in 1965 grew to 2,406 and in 1966 to 2,448. In 1969, the Department of Mental Hygiene was superceded by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Laws of 1969, ch. 77). Within the new department, the Mental Hygiene Administration assumed responsibility for Spring Grove and the state mental hospitals.