Photograph of Agnews Developmental Center — Photograph by EugeneZelenko, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Agnews Insane Asylum

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 13 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“Agnews Developmental Center was a state institution located on two campuses in the U.S. state of California; one in Santa Clara and one in San Jose. Founded in 1885 as a psychiatric facility for the mentally ill, it operated for over a century before closing in stages between 1998 and 2011.”
Wikipedia article Agnews Developmental Center, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 117 National Register listings published here for Santa Clara County · listed in 1997 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 4000 Lafayette Ave., Santa Clara, 95054
When was it listed? August 1997
Category. district
Census division. San Jose
Architectural style. Mediterranean Revival architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 97000829 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1978

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 89 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Agnews Insane Asylum, surveyed 1978

Topographic sheet covering Agnews Insane Asylum, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

86 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 86 fires within 5 miles of Agnews Insane Asylum between 1998 and 2020, burning about 73 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	64
Smoking	9
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Arson/incendiarism	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Debris and open burning	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
7 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Santa Clara Unit	not named
3 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Santa Clara Unit	not named
3 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Santa Clara Unit	SIERRA
28 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Santa Clara Unit	not named
28 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge	DON EDWARDS 09
27 September 2017	Smoking	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
27 September 2010	Smoking	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Santa Clara County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Agnews Insane Asylum: 3 past producers, 2 unknowns, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Hubble Quarry and Mill	Granite	Unknown
Roggasch Bros.	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Prospect
Garden City Pottery Co.	Clay	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Garden City Pottery Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hubble Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Santa Clara County

Storms near this property

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Clara, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2020: 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2020	Hail	Santa Clara	-	Small hail reported in Santa Clara.

Every storm recorded in Santa Clara County

Maps showing this location

13 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1897 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500
1899 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1943 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500
1947 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Milpitas quadrangle1:24000
1953 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500
1956 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
1961 USGS Milpitas quadrangle1:24000 - 7 printings
1961 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1962 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1966 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
1978 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
James Lick Mill	0.7 miles	1982
Alviso Historic District	2.3 miles	1973
Charles Copeland Morse House	2.9 miles	1977
Santa Clara Depot	3.0 miles	1985
Santa Clara Verein	3.0 miles	1984
Andrew J. Landrum House	3.2 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 97000829 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Santa Clara County	All 117 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.