The State Commission on Lunacy

In 1886, the State of Maryland established the State Lunacy Commission (SLC), consisting of the Attorney General and four others, including two physicians (who were generally members of the Faculty). Obviously, the commission’s primary concern was the proper care of the state’s insane, who for decades, had been “cared for” in the most dire and decrepit conditions. 

Twice a year, members of the SLC visited public and private institutions, including almshouses, and reported to the commission. They also required reports from the institutions themselves. The SLC paid particular attention to the health of the patients and their living conditions, including methods used to subdue patients.

The goal of the SLC was to eliminate crowding in state mental hospitals and improve the manner of care for the patients by 1909. To help achieve this goal, several large hospitals were opened around the state, or updated from their former iterations. 

The original mental hospital or asylum was at Bayview on the eastern side of Baltimore City. It was also known as the “poorhouse” something to which many residents’ families objected. It had a terrible reputation and the conditions were very outdated.

The first purpose-built mental hospital was the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, founded by the legislature in 1797. Each county had an annual assessment of $100 for the care of their “lunatics” and became a lunatic and general hospital.