<P> Eastern State Hospital , built in 1773 in colonial Williamsburg , Virginia , was the first public facility in the present - day United States constructed solely for the care and treatment of the mentally ill . The hospital 's patients were moved in the 20th century to a new facility outside Williamsburg . The original building had burned but was reconstructed in 1985 . Today it operates as a museum about the treatment of mental illness . </P>
in 1780 treatment of patients at the williamsburg va hospital was designed to
care and treatment of the mentally ill