The institute officially opens in Web of Spider-Man Annual #10 (1994), written by Terry Kavanagh, with art by Jerry Bingham.
Ravencroft Institute was built on land that was considered cursed by local indigenous tribes since before the 15th century, having been claimed as territory by a cannibalistic cult worshipping the dark god Knull.
[3] In 1783, a battle during the American Revolution occurred on this land where a revolutionary named Steve Rogers was killed by a stray cannonball.
Despite numerous setbacks including an arson activity where one person involved claimed that Mephisto told him to do it, he had established the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane by the early 1900s.
In this incarnation, it housed mostly non-superpowered psychopaths and had an imposing metal front gate with a Gothic façade similar to DC's Arkham Asylum.
[13] During the "Absolute Carnage" storyline, Cletus Kasady was reanimated and took control of the Knull-worshiping cult, and had Jameson, whom he had infected with a branch of his symbiote, kill the guards and lure Spider-Man and Venom into a trap.
[16] Crime lord Wilson Fisk - using his influence as the Mayor of New York - financed the cleanup of the destroyed asylum, intending to have it rebuilt to further his own nefarious purposes.
[5] Proving this prediction true, Mayor Fisk hired supervillains Norman Osborn, Dennis Dunphy, Taskmaster, Mac Gargan, Karla Sofen, Karl Malus, and Roderick Kingsley as staff members.
[19] During the "Fall of X", Anna Watson was later committed to Ravencroft after her Krakoan medicine that would've treated her dementia was tainted by Orchis.
[20] While having turned down Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson's offer to be released following the "Gang War" storyline, she opted to remain a model prisoner as she befriends Sandman, Hippo, Human Fly, and Whirlwind.
When Electro attacked Ravencroft to retrieve a reluctant Sandman, Anna was defended by Hippo, Human Fly, and Whirlwind.