Charity Hospital (New Orleans, La.)

The Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, was founded as L'Hôpital des Pauvres de la Charité in 1736, the bequest of shipbuilder Jean Louis. Subsequent buildings were erected in 1743, 1785, 1815, 1832, and 1939. The hospital, which was the city's only facility for the mentally ill until a state asylum opened in 1848, admitted men, women, and children throughout the 1840s. The institution later came under the jurisdiction of Louisiana State University. The Charity Hospital building sat unoccupied after flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in 2013 New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and other city officials proposed a plan to move City Hall and other civic offices into the building.

From the guide to the Charity Hospital (New Orleans, La.) Lunatic Asylum admission book, 1841-1848, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)