[1] Illinois originally did not have any system for caring for its mentally ill citizens who were either living with their family or kept in local almshouses.
Dorothea Dix lobbied the state legislature to create a facility in Illinois designed for the care of the mentally ill. On March 1, 1847, the legislature established the Illinois State Asylum and Hospital for the Insane with a nine-member board of trustees that was empowered to appoint a superintendent, purchase land within four miles of Jacksonville, and construct facilities.
At the time, institutions for the mentally ill either had a number of small cottages, or a single large central building under the Kirkbride Plan.
Although Dix had expressed interest that Jacksonville State Hospital be opened by 1849, it wasn't until November 3, 1851, that the first two wards were ready for occupancy and the first patient, Sophronia McElhiney, of McLean County, was admitted.
She led a campaign to amend the Illinois law to guarantee a public hearing for all people declared insane, including women whose husbands wished to have them committed.
[5] In 1974, Jacksonville State Hospital's duties expanded beyond in-patient care of mental illness to include treatment for the *developmentally disabled."
[6] In September 2011, Governor Pat Quinn announced a plan to close the facility in February 2012 due to budget issues.