Broughton Hospital Historic District

Broughton Hospital is a large state mental hospital campus just outside Morganton, opened in 1883 after a decision in 1875 to build a new institution. Samuel Sloan, an architect known for asylum design, placed the massive brick Center Building on the highest ground and planned it on the Kirkbride system, with a central administrative core, wings for patients, separate male and female sides, and broad landscaped lawns. Later brick wards, including the Colonial Revival Morrison, Hoey and McCampbell buildings, extended the crescent-shaped layout. Superintendent Dr. Patrick Murphy introduced work therapy, a Colony Program of small homelike patient housing, an experimental farm, separate tuberculosis wards and an infirmary. Federal PWA crews added buildings such as the laundry and Saunders Building in the late 1930s. Staff cottages, farm barns, a patients' cemetery and a greenhouse complete the district, which holds sixty contributing buildings across about 337 acres.