When it opened in the final days of 1930, Manteno State Hospital became the tenth mental health facility in the state. It was developed to relieve overcrowding at the other nine institutions, especially those in Kankakee, Elgin and Chicago.

Beginning with a patient population of about 800, the new hospital passed the 1,000 mark in 1934. By the end of its first decade, Manteno’s patient population had exceeded 3,000; it neared 7,000 in 1950, and in 1955, reached its peak of 8,272.

As a result — despite a nearly constant building construction program —Manteno (along with other state hospitals) was almost always overcrowded and often understaffed. Due partly to changes in the methods of treatment for mental illness, coupled with state budget cutbacks, Manteno’s patient population steadily declined in succeeding decades.

In the mid-1960s, there were 6,300 patients housed in the red-brick “cottages” at Manteno; by the late 1970s, only about 1,000 patients remained on the sprawling campus. On Dec. 31, 1985, Manteno State Hospital closed after 55 years.

During its more than five decades of operation, the hospital would suffer from the “growing pains” of overcrowding and understaffing, a deadly epidemic, community fears over the housing of criminally insane patients and an unpopular proposal to convert part of the hospital to a state prison.

The deadly epidemic seized the public’s attention on Aug. 31, 1939, when the Kankakee Daily Republican-News broke the story that eight people had died and nearly 200 were ill at Manteno State Hospital. Under the headline “Typhoid Epidemic,” the newspaper reported, “Five inmates of Manteno state hospital and three employees … have died in the epidemic of typhoid fever which is ravaging the institution, it was learned today.”

By the time the typhoid fever epidemic ran its course in late September, 53 people were dead, and more than 350 had been hospitalized by the bacterial infection. Most of the fatalities were inmates (as patients were then called), but the death toll also included hospital employees and several workers involved in construction projects at the institution.

The first typhoid case had been diagnosed on July 15, but was considered an isolated occurrence, since typhoid fever had become fairly rare by the 1930s. When additional cases developed over the following weeks, hospital officials ordered that all water from the institution’s wells should be treated with chlorine (contamination of the water supply by raw sewage was later established as the cause of the epidemic).

Patients and hospital workers were inoculated with typhoid vaccine. It was, however, a case of “too little, too late”— hundreds of patients and hospital workers had already become infected. The first death, a woman patient named Caroline Pietrowski, occurred on Aug. 26.

On Nov. 3, a special grand jury was impaneled, at the request of Kankakee County State’s Attorney Samuel Shapiro, to investigate the Manteno typhoid epidemic. The jury began hearing testimony on Nov. 13; nine days later, it indicted four officials, charging them with “malfeasance in office concerning the death of 53 persons … and the illness of hundreds of others.”

Indicted were Archie L. Bowen, director of the state Department; Dr. Ralph T. Hinton, the hospital’s managing officer; Dr. D. L. Steinberg, Hinton’s assistant, and Mrs. Lillian Williams, the hospital’s dietitian.

Bowen was brought to trial first; on June 27, 1940, he was found guilty, removed from office and fined $1,000. Charges against the other three indicted officials were dropped by Shapiro. He explained, “No further purpose could be gained by trying them, inasmuch as the possible penalty — removal from office — already had been accomplished.”

Another major problem emerged in the late 1970s, when community concerns peaked over the number of patient “walkaways” at Manteno State Hospital. Patients were commonly issued “grounds passes” that permitted them to leave their wards and walk around the hospital’s large campus.

Some of them kept walking, leaving the unfenced hospital property and turning up in the village of Manteno or other local residential areas.

At a state legislative committee meeting in January 1976, particular concern was expressed about “mittimus” patients (those committed to the hospital after being found “Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity”). Commonly referred to as “criminally insane,” mittimus patients had been arrested for violent crimes, such as murder, rape and assault.

Such patients typically formed a relatively small percentage of the patient population; in early 1976, for example, there were 114 mittimus patients in a total hospital population of 1,196.

Mrs. Ella Curry, superintendent of the hospital, told the Kankakee Daily Journal that in a 12-month period, there were 56 mittimus patients who “were unaccounted for” at the hospital. Of those walkaways, she said, “All but five … were apprehended.”

At a September 1977 community meeting, Mrs. Curry spoke to an audience of about 300 local people, telling them that, while their concerns about the walkaways were “somewhat realistic,” she “found great difficulty in securing any information of incidents of bodily harm this community has experienced the past 50 years.”

The mittiomus patients were later segregated in more secure wards, and were no longer allowed unsupervised grounds passes. Eventually, they were transferred from Manteno to a medium-security mental health facility at Chester, Ill.

During the same period as the walkaway controversy, a new concern arose with reports that the Manteno Mental Health Center (as it was then called), would be closed down and converted to a state prison. The prison project, part of a proposed state budget announced in early March 1981, came as a total surprise to local leaders.

“It was a complete shock to me …. I don’t think anyone knew that was going to be in the budget,” said State Senator Jerome Joyce, of Essex.

State Representatives George Ryan, Edward McBroom and Ray Christensen quickly added their shock and opposition to the project.

“If the four of us can’t get it done, we’re all in trouble,” commented Ryan.

A firestorm of opposition, including a protest meeting that drew an estimated 700 local residents, caused the prison plan to be dropped. A budget proposal that drew considerable local approval, however, did go forward: creation of an Illinois Veterans’ home that would provide skilled nursing care for some 300 military veterans.

The $18 million facility would make use of several converted ward buildings on the north end of the state hospital campus. Kankakee resident and World War II veteran Al Keller Jr. was hired as superintendent (and first employee) of the Veterans’ Home on Nov. 14, 1985; the home was dedicated in October 1986.

The Manteno Mental Health Center officially closed on Dec. 31, 1985. On Jan. 1, 1986, ownership of more than 200 acres of the former hospital property was deeded by the state to a nonprofit group, the Manteno Mental Health Center Redevelopment Council. A $3.3 million state grant was allocated to renovate and market the site as the “Illinois Diversatech Campus.”

Today, the property has been redeveloped into a combination of commercial, residential and other uses. In addition to the Veterans’ Home, the former state hospital grounds include a number of small manufacturing plants, several warehouses, a variety of residential developments, an assisted living facility for senior citizens and a residential treatment facility for troubled young people.

Local trivia The former state hospital administration building, which housed a financial institution office for a number of years, is being redeveloped for an interesting new use by a nonprofit agency. What is it? <strong>Answer:</strong> A Vintage Purse Museum is tentatively scheduled to open in spring 2024. The museum, which will hire only adults with disabilities for its staff, will be one of three such attractions in the world. The other two are located in Little Rock, Ark., and in Seoul, Korea. The museum will have a variety of historical exhibits, and hopes to become a destination for purse collectors and other tourists. {related_content_uuid}cc39d84e-a715-4641-b659-3a8ea49f6f66{/related_content_uuid}

The former state hospital administration building, which housed a financial institution office for a number of years, is being redeveloped for an interesting new use by a nonprofit agency. What is it?

Answer: A Vintage Purse Museum is tentatively scheduled to open in spring 2024. The museum, which will hire only adults with disabilities for its staff, will be one of three such attractions in the world. The other two are located in Little Rock, Ark., and in Seoul, Korea. The museum will have a variety of historical exhibits, and hopes to become a destination for purse collectors and other tourists.