{"id":472011,"date":"2026-09-22T15:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472011\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:08:14","slug":"agnews-museum-offers-unique-insight-into-storied-santa-clara-landmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/472011\/","title":{"rendered":"Agnews Museum Offers Unique Insight into Storied Santa Clara Landmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you grew up in the Bay Area, you likely heard rumors about Agnews Developmental Center. Odds are, those rumors were based on misconceptions learned from scenes in movies like \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d or \u201cShutter Island.\u201d These beliefs certainly weren\u2019t improved by the clumsy names the state gave Agnews. It was called the \u201cGreat Asylum for the Insane\u201d at its founding in 1885 and \u201cAgnews State Mental Hospital\u201d in 1911.<\/p>\n

In reality, Agnews was something completely different, and that\u2019s what Kathleen Lee, the lead docent at Agnews Historic Cemetery and Museum<\/a>, wants to teach the public. If anyone knows, it\u2019s Lee; she and her team of museum volunteers worked at Agnews before the site officially closed in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to understand that there was a real loving environment,\u201d said Lee.\u00a0\u201cYeah, there were people that had some severe mental disabilities, but there also were people \u2026 this young man said he was put out when he was 17. He came and spent a few years at Agnews, got his medication straightened up, and went back and lived at home. Then, when he felt like his meds weren\u2019t working right again, he came back and spent his 21st birthday out here. Then never had to come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lee says the 1906 earthquake was a major turning point for Agnews. It was devastating at first\u00a0because the brick buildings crumbled and more than a hundred patients and employees died. But from that, a new idea was formed. Agnews transformed from an \u201casylum\u201d to a \u201cdevelopmental center.\u201d<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"Devid\"Devid<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLeonard Stocking said, \u2018Okay, I\u2019m gonna go out.\u2019 So, he went all over the United States and came back with this idea of making it a more therapeutic area,\u201d said Lee. \u201cThat means people were learning different jobs. They were busy during the day rather than just being held here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients learned to sew, can food, iron, care for pigs and chickens and work in the fields. In addition to giving patients something to do, Stocking turned the buildings into more dormitory-style settings with common areas.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAgnews became a city of its own. We were out here in the boonies, so we had our own police and fire department. We had our own pharmacy,\u201d said Lee. \u201cLeonard Stocking\u2019s idea was to give people jobs to take care of this village called Agnews.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPONSORED<\/p>\n

\"57th_SC_Parade_of_Champions_Image.\"\"57th_SC_Parade_of_Champions_Image.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During the day, patients worked. At night, they played.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also had evening activities and weekend activities. So, we had baseball teams and basketball teams, and this was daily life here,\u201d said Lee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agnews Historic Cemetery and Museum is located at 1250 Hope Dr. in Santa Clara. It\u2019s open Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (except city holidays) and by appointment. Lee is the lead docent. She\u2019s usually joined by another former Agnews employee.<\/p>\n

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Santa Clara Sets its Sights on Relocating City Hall<\/a>
Final Beam Put into Place at Kathleen MacDonald High School<\/a>
SCUSD Opens Two New Schools for 2021-22 School Year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you grew up in the Bay Area, you likely heard rumors about Agnews Developmental Center. Odds are,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[185631,6036,88,90,89,197,2921,2922],"class_list":["post-472011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-agnews-historic-cemetery","tag-bay-area-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-weekly","tag-silicon-valley-voice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}