Page "St. Elizabeths Hospital" Paragraph 3

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.