| Modesto State Hospital | |
| Coordinates: | 37.6626°N -121.035°W |
| Location: | Modesto |
| State: | California |
| Country: | United States |
| Funding: | public |
| Type: | Specialist |
| Speciality: | Psychiatry |
| Opened: | 1947 |
| Closed: | 1972 |
Modesto State Hospital was a public psychiatric hospital in the city of Modesto in Stanislaus County, California, and was established in 1946, opened in late-1947 and closed in 1972.[1] It is the same location of the former Hammond General Hospital (1942–1946), a United States Army hospital during World War II.
Modesto State Hospital was purchased from the United States federal government in November 1946 (under statutes 1946, ch. 129).[1] The hospital operated as a temporary state mental hospital and when it opened in late-1947 it took in patients from other overcrowded state hospitals, specifically the mentally ill and the mentally deficient patients.[2]
By September 1951 the Hospital started an admissions department and receive new psychiatric patients. In 1951, the hospital had its most patients 2,369, which it maintained until 1963.[3] In 1963, the patient population declined, in 1969 it was announced the hospital would close, and was closed in 1972.[4]
This hospital was one of the many state asylums that had sterilization centers.[5]