The Oregon Hospital for the Insane once stood on what is now called Hawthorne Boulevard after the hospital's co-founder.
Records show that 185 patients of the Oregon Hospital for the Insane, the state’s first psychiatric hospital, were laid to rest in various areas of Lone Fir Cemetery – some in unmarked graves – during the late 1800s.
Through research conducted in preparation for this project, we now know that it is highly unlikely that patients were buried in Block 14, as was previously believed. While records of patient burial locations are incomplete, researchers have found burial locations for 61 patients. Of these, 54 patient burials are in Block 10 of the cemetery, to the north of Block 14. Block 10 is referred to as the “asylum burial ground” in historic burial records.
Metro has interviewed individuals with lived and/or professional experience with mental illness to gather ideas about how to share this history in a meaningful way.
Metro is working to honor these patients in place, where possible. Headstones will be installed for known patient burial locations that do not currently have markers, and interpretive information about the patients’ history is being developed.