The asylum was opened in June 1876, in Winooski, to house the chronically insane who had previously been housed in the state hospital and the jail. On February 19, 1878, four of 21 inmates, one of whom was mentally disabled, died in a fire that destroyed the building.[1]
The Winooski building was soon rebuilt, but was replaced with a larger building on a site between Superior and Erie Avenues in Sheboygan, built under an 1881 state law that provided funds for the care of the insane in county asylums, which opened in June 1882.[1] This was called the county hospital, but became known as the asylum.[2] It also served as a poorhouse.[3] An addition the following year increased the building's capacity from 40 to 90.[1] Another fire, on December 29, 1892, claimed the life of the night watchman who discovered it.[1] The asylum farmed its land to feed and employ the inmates; by 1911, after further expansions and the acquisition of an adjacent farm through a bond issue, it stood on 309 acres and had a capacity of 225 inmates.[1]
The facility closed in 1940, having become dilapidated, and was demolished in 1960.[4] Pick 'n Save (formerly Park & Save) and Advocate Aurora Health Center (founded as the Sheboygan Clinic) were built in 1983 and 1985, respectively (with Pick 'n Save rebuilt in 2010) on the former asylum plot.[3][2]
