Glenwood State Hospital & School

This rather ominous looking conglomeration of buildings is Glenwood State Hospital-School as it looked in 1896.

      Originally, Glenwood State Hospital and School was the western branch of the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans Home.  Famous American evangelist Billy Sunday even lived there for a time.  Late in 1875 the orphans home was transferred to Davenport, and its sole brick building in Glenwood stood empty for about a year and a half.

     Through the efforts of Dr. W. S. Robertson and the Honorable John Y. Stone of Glenwood, the Iowa Asylum for Feeble-Minded children opened Sept. 1, 1876.  That made Iowa  the seventh state in the union to establish a home and school for mentally retarded children.

~ source: Scrapbook Memories at Glenwood Library
~ transcribed by Roseanna Zehner