St. Elizabeths Hospital

The current name of this stop, “Congress Heights,” seems like a name you’d get when asking someone to describe Capitol Hill without using the words “Capitol” or “Hill.” Unlike Capitol Hill, though, Congress Heights is close to neither the House nor the Senate, so let’s make this station more local. The Government Hospital for the Insane was established in 1855 as the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the U.S. Efforts to open the hospital were led in large part by Dorothea Dix, a major figure in mental health reform at the time. By 1916, some thought that the hospital could use a more pleasant name, so they renamed it “St. Elizabeths.” In its 160+ years of existence, the hospital has had a slew of famous patients including attempted presidential assassins (Richard Lawrence, John Hinckley Jr., and Charles Guiteau) as well as Ezra Pound and Mussolini (sort of).