The Grace Museum Exhibition - Creating a Community: The State Epileptic Colony in Abilene

Overview

This exhibition will highlight the early history of the State Epileptic Colony in Abilene through over 50 photographs from The Grace’s permanent history collection. In 1904, the institution was founded to help individuals with epilepsy through research, care, isolation, and offering a place to work and live. The complex consisted of an administration building, a power plant, a women’s and men’s hospital, four cottages, and a home for the superintendent. The hospital was a state of the art facility and housed 200 patients by the fall of 1904. By the 1920s, the state of Texas expressed the desire to include individuals with mental health disabilities and renamed the colony the Abilene State Hospital and added a recreation building, x-ray laboratories, twin dormitories, and a warehouse. The named changed to Abilene State School in the 1950s and later the Abilene State Supported Living Center. The current living center is dedicated to treatment, rehabilitation, independence, and helping individuals feel safe and healthy.