11 Most Endangered Historic Places

St. Elizabeths Hospital

Year Listed: 2002
Location: Washington, District of Columbia
Threat: Demolition

St.
St. Elizabeth?s Hospital Administration Building, Washington, DC.

Credit: Washington, D.C. Preservation League

 

Significance

It may be the most famous mental hospital in America, but now Washington, D.C.'s St. Elizabeths Hospital – a sprawling 300-acre complex that dates back to the 1850s and has housed such notorious residents as John Hinckley and the poet Ezra Pound – is also one of the most endangered. This National Historic Landmark – which at one time included a railroad, bakery, greenhouse and an impressive collection of Victorian and Colonial Revival buildings – is crumbling, and a shrinking patient population has left many historically significant structures vacant.