in 1780 treatment of patients at the williamsburg va hospital was designed to
Eastern State Hospital (Virginia) 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.