The Old Pontiac State Asylum: 1878-1997

This old psychiatric hospital has been known under a few different names: Pontiac State Hospital, Clinton Valley Center, and the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane.

Back in 1873, the Kalamazoo psychiatric hospital was getting overcrowded; as an answer to the problem, $400,000 was appropriated to build a second one on the other side of the state to take in the overflow. Various cities put in their bid to become the location, but it was Pontiac who emerged victorious – the new hospital would be constructed there.

The new hospital, named the Eastern Michigan Asylum, was blueprinted by the same guy who was architect of the Michigan State Capital Building in Lansing, Elijah Myers. After extensive planning and building, the asylum opened on August 1, 1878, with space for 222 patients.

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With its innovations in psychiatric care, more and more patients were being admitted, so the hospital needed to be enlarged several times: in 1882, 1895, 1906, 1914, and 1938.

FAST FACTS:
1911: Name change to Pontiac State Hospital
1950s: 3,100 patient-residents
1973: Name change to Clinton Valley Center
Late 1970s: Patient number dwindled to 800
1997: CLOSED

With only 200 patients by the 1990s, the facility had no other choice but to shut down.

Once located at 140 Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac, the old hospital was even listed as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974. It was also an entry in the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Even so, the powers-that-be ignored the historical aspect and deemed it necessary to tear the whole thing down.

After standing vacant for three years, it was finally demolished in 2000.

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