Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital in Crownsville, MD. Drawing on many other documentary works for inspiration, the film utilizes archival footage, animation and original music to unfold the story and evoke a mood. Both exterior and interior present-day footage and photos have been combined with exterior/interior archival footage and photos to capture the changes to the hospital through its 96-year lifespan. In addition, interviews with historians and former hospital workers as well as patients help to round out the experience. Constructed in 1910, Crownsville State Hospital, formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland, was the third asylum in the U.S. designed to house only African-Americans. In 1962, Crownsville began to accept all mental patients regardless of their race. Crownsville Hospital Center closed its doors on June 30, 2004 and has since sat vacant.