History
It opened at its current location on November 24, 1891, though it had existed at previous locations in Vallejo and Santa Clara since 1884.
The facility's current name dates from 1986. Former names include:
- California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children (1883)
- Sonoma State Home (1909)
- Sonoma State Hospital (1953)
More than 5,000 patients were involuntarily sterilized at this facility during the period 1918 to 1949. The medical director at that time was Frederick Otis Butler, MD.
From 1955 to 1960 Sonoma State Hospital in northern California served as a permanent drop off location for mentally handicapped children diagnosed with cerebral palsy or lesser disorders. The children subsequently underwent painful experimentation without adult consent. Many were given irradiated milk, some spinal taps "for which they received no direct benefit." 60 Minutes Wednesday learned that in these fifteen years, the brain of every cerebral palsy child who died at Sonoma State was removed and studied without parental consent. According to the CBS story, over 1,400 patients died at the clinic.
In 2000, its main building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Read more about this topic: Sonoma Developmental Center
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“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)