We discovered the Agnews Historic Cemetery and Museum, purely by chance! In a quiet residential area of Santa Clara, hidden amongst townhouses and condos, stands an unassuming one-story house with a small grassy field adjacent to it. Blink and you’ll miss it. Driving to lunch one fine Friday afternoon, we happened to catch a glimpse of it, looked at each other, and said “What’s that?”. So, we spun the car around, found a spot to park, and got out for a closer look.
Agnews Museum
To our delight, Agnews Museum was open (every Friday from 10 am to 2 pm, but temporarily closed for Covid-19 reasons right now). The admission is free, but donations are welcome. The museum’s address is 1250 Hope Dr., Santa Clara, CA.
Completely forgetting lunch, we went inside to see what it was all about and were blown away by what we had found. A very unique piece of San Francisco Bay Area history!
This little museum in the middle of a suburban neighborhood is run by volunteers, mostly former medical staff who took care of the patients in Agnews State Mental Hospital during its operation.
It preserves artifacts salvaged from the hospital, and also donated by the patients and their families.
Our two guides, Norman and Judy, worked at Agnews Hospital and were reminiscing their days of service.
The Museum’s brick walls were once part of the original Visitors’ Center at the hospital. Then, later they were moved to the cemetery to build the museum. The bell from the majestic hospital tower was also brought to this location.
Agnews Historic Cemetery
The small grassy field adjacent is Agnews Historic Cemetery, with no headstones or markers of any kind. A viewing gazebo was built to overlook the burial area that appears to be a vacant lot. But is it vacant?
There is speculation about who is buried here. Once it was thought to be a mass grave for victims of the 1906 quake. Although, after some research of this Potter’s Field, it was discovered that the buried human remains pre-date that event.
It is still uncertain who, or how many people are laid to rest here (by some accounts about 200), so this quiet lot shadowed by surrounding townhouses and condos continues to remain a mystery.
The Great Asylum for the Insane
Established in 1885, Agnews was the first California state hospital to house such a large number of patients, and also known for using progressive methods (of the time).
The Great San Francisco Quake of 1906
At 5.12 am, April 18th, 1906, The Great Earthquake of San Francisco shook California. With a magnitude of 7.9 (7.7 to 8.3 proposed), this high-intensity quake was felt far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. Unfortunately, the Agnews Asylum for the Insane was not structurally reinforced. With a shaking like that, large portions of the building collapsed, taking the lives of 117 people, both patients and staff.
Dr. Leonard Stocking, superintendent of Agnews from 1904 to 1931, also known as “the dean of psychiatrists in California” quickly began leading efforts to rebuild.
Reopening in 1911, Agnews State Mental Hospital (later known as Agnews Developmental Center) operated successfully until the Lanterman Act in 1972, which de-institutionalized state mental care. The hospital eventually closed its West campus in 1995, and its last patient was discharged in March of 2009.
But you see, Agnews was not just a hospital at the time, it was actually a small village with police and fire departments, orchards, and fields. Even its own train station! The community was built so that patients could feel like valuable residents. They could maintain the surrounding landscape, go on educational field trips, participate in workshops, build things, farming, act in drama classes, etc.
So, during Agnews heyday, it was quite a place to be for patients, providing them with lots of skill-learning activities and a sense of worth and community. Plenty of attention was put into the comfort and mental well-being of the patients. Even the rooms of the residents were built to take full advantage of the afternoon breezes and sunshine.
The grounds and the remaining four buildings of Agnews State Hospital have been lovingly preserved as a San Francisco Bay Area historical landmark.
Although, the grounds look much different than they did during the hospital’s operation, and now serve as one of the campuses of the tech company Oracle.
For more of the San Francisco Bay Area destinations, check out our articles on the USS Hornet, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, and Winchester Mystery House, to name a few. You can find these posts and more in our Local Discoveries section.
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10 Comments
Gabriel
I photographed the West Campus before they leveled all the buildings except the 4 remaining buildings. I just went last week to see the renewed structures again. It was painful to see them level all the magnificent buildings so I haven’t been back till recently. I want to see the little museum after I found out it was open again. I just cked out the Dvd on Agnew’s and the book from the library. What does it take to save anything historic in Santa Clara. An act of a higher being? I photographed so much of the valley before they leveled practically everything. So much big money at stake. All we get are some plaques of what stood here before. 🙁
Gabriel
MonkeysVentures
Hi Gabriel,
Thank you so much for your comment! It seems really heart-felt! We were delighted to see that the museum reopened again.
We’d be happy to collaborate with you and share your photos (with full credits, of course)! Please feel free to connect via email (contact information in the Contact Us page).
Dan & Julia
Eric flint
Thank you for this post. Had a similar experience. Was taking a google map inspired “short cut” and caught a glimpse of a sign for the Agnes Museum. Web search about it led to this post. I’m definitely going to go now.
If you havn’t already been, the San Mateo County History Musuem in the Old Courthouse of Redwood City is surprisingly interesting. Good discussions of the Ohlone Era, Spanish Ranch Era, Landed Estates era (lots of cool wagons), oyster, salt, cement industries amongst other things. The Sunnyvale History Museum is also very well done and informative, especially for being ‘just’ a local museum. I think both might be worth a visit.
Another great historical spot is the Coyote Hills East Bay Regional Park. It has some great trails, and a pretty good small museum about that park with a major focus on the Ohlone Indians who lived there in pre-mission days. Other aspects of the museum are about the parks days as a Nike Missile site, a duck hunting preserve, and salt ponds. The park also contains a documented Shell mound but access to it is limited out of respect for the Muwekma Ohlone and other local Decendents of the Mission and Ohlone Indians. It is still very informative to go visit the museum and then hike some of the trails and imagine what life was like pre-missionization.
If you are further interested in the Native Californian’s of the area, the Chitactac-Adams Heritage County Park down by Gilroy/Morgan Hill might also be worth a visit. This was a site for a less bay oriented tribe of the Ohlone (I believe it is considered part of the Amah-Mutsen Tribal territory now). There is a small interpretive site and guided trail. It is a school children field trip site though, so much of it is fenced. Has many bedrock grinding mortars and even some rare (for around here) petroglyphs. I would recommend going in spring when things are still green and the stream is flowing. It can get kind of dry and dusty in the fall.
Continuing with the Native California theme, the Sanchez Adobe up in Pacifica, is supposed to be worth a visit. It was the site of another Ohlone tribal village and eventually (1840?) the Sanchez Adobe was built there. I haven’t (yet) been, so I can’t say much more about it.
MonkeysVentures
Hi Eric,
Thank you so much for your comment and tips!! Hope you’ll get to explore Agnews Museum soon, it looks like it’s back to its regular opening times on Fridays 10am-2pm.
We haven’t been to either Sunnyvale or Redwood City museums. Thank you for putting them on our radar. And we are really curious now to hike in the Coyote Hills East Bay Regional Park and the Chitactac-Adams Heritage County Park! Writing down the Sanchez Adobe as well! :-))) Really appreciate your feedback! Discovering something new in the SF Bay Area every day!!
wattwherehow
It’s sad to see things like the electroshock therapy generator and think of the misery these poor inmates/patients went through.
MonkeysVentures
That what we originally thought too. However, Agnews was known as one of the most progressive mental health institutions with great care for its tenants. We had a cool conversation with our guides (retired medical professionals who served at Agnews and volunteer at the museum to preserve its history) about it and misconceptions that people sometimes have, and misuses.
cindyp2922
I recently found a newspaper account of a relative of mine that was a patient at this facility. She was committed in Dec 1899. Is it possible to find out how long she was there? Are there any remaing records? She has long been a family mystery that I would love to solve.
MonkeysVentures
Hi Cindy,
Thank you for your comment. Here is the link to Agnews Museum with their phone information. https://www.santaclaraca.gov/Home/Components/ServiceDirectory/ServiceDirectory/1316/2674
Unfortunately, the museum is temporarily closed right now because of Covid-19 restrictions. But it wouldn’t hurt to leave them a message. Hope you’ll be able to solve this family mystery!
ljalvarez123
I grew up knowing about Agnes but never knew it has so much history.
Thank you for sharing 👍👍
MonkeysVentures
Thank you Lilian!!! Glad you enjoyed it!