Oddsconsin...where we explore peculiar and sometimes mysterious features of Wisconsin’s human landscape.

The First World War left many veterans suffering from severe psychological disorders, including shell-shock, also known at the time as neurasthenia, but now usually called PTSD. When the war ended in 1918, Wisconsin began to look for ways to treat these veterans. This led to the establishment of Memorial Hospital at Farwell’s Point, in Madison, on the grounds of the State Hospital for the Insane. 

Construction began in 1921 and the hospital was completed the next year, providing 92 beds for patients. Over the next few years, a dozen more buildings were added, including patient dormitories, staff quarters, administration buildings, a dining hall and a chapel, all adjacent to several clusters of Native American mounds.

By the early 1930s, the complex housed almost 300 patients. But the patient population soon plummeted due to the creation of the federal Veterans Administration. The Administration moved patients from Memorial Hospital to federal facilities in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois, and by the mid-1930s, only 80 patients remain at Memorial.

Memorial Hospital still stands but has been vacant for decades. Most of the other hospital buildings are still in use as part of Mendota Mental Health Institute.

Interested in more details? See the National Register of Historic Places record for the Memorial Hospital Historic District.