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Two landscape aerial views displaying south and north buildings of a hospital. Buildings are scattered by trees and open grass.
Aerial view of the Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital in Helmuth, New York.

Gowanda State Hospital is opened for psychiatric patients.

1894

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Aerial view of the Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital in Helmuth, New York.

New York State takes 500 acres of property from Quaker settlers for the construction of a state hospital for the "insane." Nearly 100 more buildings will be erected as the institution census rises to over 4,000 psychiatric patients. The Gowanda State Hospital will sterilize the most people of any facility in New York. In total, 29 people will be sterilized, all of whom are women. In 1994, the hospital will be converted into a state correctional facility known as Gowanda Prison.