Hyde Park residents vote to keep Austin State Hospital, but Texas lawmakers will decide its fate

For more than a century, the Austin State Hospital has been a fixture in Hyde Park. While the facility near Guadalupe and 41st streets is primarily a psychiatric hospital, its winding trails and tree-lined campus are a popular recreational space for neighbors. Now, state leaders are considering selling the property and relocating the hospital — a move that has some residents concerned.

Completed in 1861, the Austin State Hospital was the first Texas facility established to care for the mentally ill. It represented a shift in attitudes toward treating mental illness, with the asylum offering patients a healing environment free from the stress of everyday life. Today, it admits about 4,000 patients a year, serving 38 counties across Central Texas.

The Hyde Park Neighborhood Plan highlights the importance of the hospital to preserving neighborhood character, and many residents don’t want to see it go. Speaking at a Hyde Park Neighborhood Association meeting Monday, resident Susan Marshall argued that the hospital should stay because its current location brings needed services to Central Austin.

“… Alcohol treatment, referrals, job referrals, all kinds of things that you just don’t hear about in the community,” she said.

Read more: http://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2016/07/hyde-park-residents-vote-keep-state-hospital-texas-lawmakers-will-decide-fate/