The Silver Hill Foundation was established by William B. Terhune in 1934[4] as a "medical and psychotherapeutic unit to diagnose and treat functional nervous disorders".

[5] It was located on the site of the former Silver Hill Inn as a setting to help patients described as "nervous, depressed, anxious, or malingering".

[8] It was located in the Silvermine River Valley of Fairfield County, straddling the borders of Wilton and New Canaan, Connecticut.

[2] The inpatient acute care unit was built in 1985[10] to provide treatment to patients whose mental illness call for constant supervision.

[10] These include: In 2006 Forbes named Silver Hill Hospital among its "Most Luxurious Places to Dry Out" and referenced its "idyllic New England boarding school campus".