text: Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility (Current)
  The first patient was admitted on February 26, 1861. In the early years of its operation, the facility was a custodial facility for patients who were hospitalized for long periods of time, some for the greater part of their lives. Mt. Pleasant went through the years updating the building as needed. 1870 saw the purchase of thirty-seven and a half acres of serviceable farmland. Four years later, the engine house caught fire destroying the boiler of the hospital. The General Assembly immediately appropriated funds for construction of a new boiler house. During this period, worry over tuberculosis dominated many municipalities including the city of Mt. Pleasant and the asylum. The board of trustees constructed and implemented a new tuberculosis cottage. In the same year, 1878, it expanded the kitchen and improved the transportation of water throughout the facility.
  By 1884, both hospitals were in the middle of huge development projects. Mt. Pleasant erected additional east (men's) and west (women's) wings; completed in 1885 and 1887, respectively. Although each hospital provided care for hundreds of additional patients, roughly 200 per expansion, it still fell short of solving the population problem. The government removed dangerous and criminally insane and moved them to the newly built the department for the criminally insane in Anamosa.
  On August 10, 1936. A fire consumed parts of the main building, chapel, recreation building, and employee dormitory. Mt. Pleasant evacuated all 1,300 plus patients. Hundreds from the town came out to aid the insane; they formed a human chain to contain the meandering patients. One woman wandered off and was never heard from again. Iowa immediately appropriated $215,000 for repairs, with up to $502,000 available over the next two years for construction. Mt. Pleasant turned the catastrophe into an opportunity to redesign the damaged space into a more modern medical facility. The Board of Control drew up plans for a larger, combination chapel and amusement hall with a centralized kitchen. The new spaces could relieve overcrowding by 1,000.
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