Racine County Insane Asylum

The first insane patients were admitted to the Racine county poorhouse in 1855. The construction of a separate building for the insane was approved by the county board of supervisors on November 26, 1888. The asylum admitted its first three patients on December 18, 1889.^[1] By 1904, the hospital housed 133 patients.^[2] On February 19 of that year, the building was destroyed in a fire.^[3][4] The asylum was rebuilt quickly after the fire, and a home for the county poor was added to the facility in 1918.^[5] The institution was also known as the Gatliff Asylum and was served by the Gatliff stop on the railroad.^[6][7] Gatliff was named after Nelson Gatliff (1813–1898), an early pioneer in Racine County who owned extensive farmland.^[8] The facility was also used as a tuberculosis sanatorium.^[9] Later it was known as High Ridge Hospitals^[10] and High Ridge Health Care Center of Racine County.^[11] It was closed on October 1, 1986, at which time the approximately 210 residents who were there were moved to the new Ridgewood Health Care Center.^[12] Asbestos removal in, then demolition of, High Ridge Health Care Center began in October 1988, to be completed by early 1989.^[13] The site is now a retail development known as High Ridge Centre, with only the old duck pond remaining from the former asylum.^{[14][failed verification]}

42°42′13.40″N 87°50′59.60″W / 42.7037222°N 87.8498889°W / 42.7037222; -87.8498889