State Epileptic Colony Historic District

Southeast of downtown Abilene, a campus laid out in 1903 as the State Epileptic Colony survives with most of its early buildings. The roughly 35-acre district has 17 contributing and 9 noncontributing resources. Its core is a bullet-shaped street plan centered on the 1903 Administration Building, a two-story red brick Classical Revival structure with a Doric portico. Nearby are the 1910 water standpipe and the 1904 Superintendent's House. Brick dormitories from the 1920s and 1930s, physician quarters, a chapel, and the 1903 power house, laundry, and bakery complete the historic group. A four-acre cemetery with more than 1,337 patient graves lies apart from the campus. The colony resulted from lobbying by Abilene leaders in the 1890s, who secured a 1899 law authorizing it and donated 640 acres; the state formally established it in 1901. The district retains a high degree of integrity, with its plan and buildings little altered, and all resources remain in use.