Naming the Forgotten - The Eastern State Hospital Project, began in December 2006 as a special project within the KyGenWeb.  Working with various records, our goal is to identify those who lived and died at the hospital before 1956.  Prior to the state mandated registration of deaths in 1911, records pertaining to these individuals are scarce.  Contributions of additional data are invited and may be made by contacting Mary Hatton. 

The Eastern State Hospital in Lexington, Fayette Co., KY was established by a legislative act of Dec. 4, 1822 and is the 2nd oldest mental hospital in the United States. On May 1, 1824 the hospital, known then as the Lunatic Asylum, welcomed it's first patient. Over the years, the name changed several times, until 1912 when the General Assembly officially renamed it Eastern State Hospital.

The Eastern State Hospital Cemetery, located on the hospital grounds, in use from the first quarter of the 19th century until the early 1950s, is no longer intact. Local industrial development resulted in a relocation of many cemetery graves to a small common area of land near the hospital grounds. It is unknown how many individuals are buried in the cemetery, but is believed to consist of 10,000 or more.  These persons came from all over the state of Kentucky, as well as from other states. 

Eastern State Hospital Cemetery Club was formed in the spring of 2006.  Their goal, to give dignity to those buried in the hospital cemetery by erecting a monument in their honor.  They are currently working on gathering as many names as possible of those buried in the cemetery.

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Naming the Forgotten - The Eastern State Hospital Project is assisting the club by sharing information found regarding persons interred at the hospital cemetery.

Obtaining hospital records - It is possible for a direct descendant of an Eastern State Hospital patient to be appointed administrator of that person's estate for purposes of accessing existing records. There is a court cost of $53.50. Write Mary Hatton for information.

Historic Asylums provides some background information on Eastern State Hospital, including a timeline, 1822 enabling legislation, images and a brief history. It also provides an interesting 1861 drawing showing the Eastern State Hospital Cemetery as part of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm at that time.

Yvonne Giles has donated an 1834 image of the grounds. The largest picture (665022 bytes) is the most legible, but can be slow to load. Also available: 220556 bytes(med) and 158062 bytes (small).

An overview of the current grounds from Google maps.

Dr. Thomas T. Wendell was a pioneer in the care of Kentucky's mentally ill. As a staff physician at Eastern State Hospital, he worked for twenty years to upgrade care of African-American patients. The Wendell Building on the campus was named in his honor. Dr. Wendell was a graduate of Meharry College in Nashville, TN with degrees in both pharmacy and medicine. He served as a physician in Lexington from 1900 until his death in 1953. Dr. Wendell was among the leaders in the community who advocated the building of the original Paul Laurence Dunbar High School for African-Americans in 1922. Source: A Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians, Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.

Contributed by Yvonne Giles