August 1, 1893 - Patton State Hospital

The State Legislature of 1889 passed a bill to erect an insane asylum in Southern California.  It was finally decided to purchase 360 acres of the Daley Tract at Highlands, with sixty inches of water from the North Fork Ditch for the consideration of $114,000.

The bill providing for the establishment of the asylum appropriated $350,000 for the purchase of the site and the erection of the main building and the north and east wings, which were first completed.  

It was opened August 1, 1893, 100 patients being brought from the north to start with...A completely equipped farm, extensive orchards and grounds are largely cared for by inmates, who are thus healthfully and usefully employed.

In 1902 an appropriation was made to complete another wing of the building, and this was finished in 1903 at a cost of $250,000.  The buildings now accommodate more than eight hundred inmates.  (Ingersoll's Century Annals of San Bernardino County, 1769-1904, pages 178-180.)

In 1927 it was renamed Patton State Hospital after a member of the first Board of Managers, Harry Patton of Santa Barbara.