Sonoma Developmental Center

The Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) is a large, state-run facility in California, United States, serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities, and is located in Eldridge in Sonoma County.[1] Former names for this hospital include California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children (1883);[2] Sonoma State Home (1909);[3] Sonoma State Hospital (1953); and Sonoma Developmental Center starting in 1986.

Sonoma Developmental Center--Main Building
Location15000 Arnold Drive
Eldridge, California
Coordinates38°20′50″N 122°31′7″W
Area1,670 acres (7 km2)
NRHP reference No.00001180
Added to NRHPOctober 6, 2000

History

It opened at its current location on November 24, 1891, though it had existed at previous locations in White Sulphur Springs near Vallejo starting in 1883; a location in Fasking Park in Alameda County; and another location in Santa Clara (near the intersection of Market and Washington Street) from 1885 to 1891.[4]

In 1891, former California state senator William Hill purchased the site for $51,000 USD. It opened with superintendent was Dr. Antrim Edgar Osborn. The home had primarily four types of residents: the mentally handicapped, the epileptic, the physically disabled, and the "psychopathic delinquent." From almost the start, the home was overcrowded.

In 1900, superintendent was Dr. William P. Lawlor and in 1903, Dr. W. J. G. Dawson became superintendent. Two railroads ran through the site until World War II. Dozens died at this hospital in an outbreak of Spanish influenza in 1918,[2] including the former superintendent William Lawlor. In 1919, Dr. Frederick Otis Butler was the superintendent, followed by Dr. M. E. Porter.

In 2000, the main building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[5]

The hospital at Sonoma Developmental Center is where the majority of forced sterilizations took place in California

Closure and reuse plan

In 2015, the state announced the closure of SDC by the end of 2018. This meant the relocation of more than 300 residents, and the development of a reuse plan for the property.[6]

The October 2017, the Nuns Fire had a dramatic impact on SDC, necessitating a mandatory evacuation of hundreds of residents and staff, and burning the eastern third of the property along California State Route 12. The main area of SDC withstood the fires, and the remaining residents all moved back in; however, the fire forced a major interruption of the State's site assessment process.

In May 2017, the State hired Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) to provide architectural and engineering services to prepare “a comprehensive existing conditions study and an opportunities and constraints summary and analysis for SDC.”

The State incorporated a strong community engagement plan as part of the WRT contract. In order to ensure that the site assessment was based on the best available data—and that the analysis is designed to answer the most pressing concerns of the local community—WRT created an SDC Community Advisory Committee (CAC). This Committee is composed of a broad range of local stakeholders, and its purpose is “to provide comments to the WRT team on the Site Assessment findings and to offer input regarding the opportunities and constraints for the SDC site.”

The first meeting of the CAC was September 28, 2017. Ten days later, the fires raged through the North Bay, and WRT's goal of producing its reports and holding a series of community meetings by the end of 2017 was lost in the tumult of wildlife disaster response. After a three-month delay, CAC scheduled a meeting with WRT on March 22, 2018. After the cancelled September CAC meeting, WRT had planned to finish the site assessment, presenting the findings one more time to the CAC, and then holding a public meeting in Sonoma where the whole community would be briefed on this critical information. According to the new timeline, after the CAC meets in March, the public meeting is likely to happen in mid-April.[7]

Research resources

The State Archive in Sacramento has extensive holdings on the early history of the Home, including patient registers, photographs, maps, and records. The Gosney Archive at Caltech in Pasadena, CA contains information about sterilization from the 1920s. The SDC does have some historical resources, but these are not open to the general public.

Fictional works
  • The Center provided the setting for Jack London's short story Told in the Drooling Ward (1914).[8]
  • Downloadable version of Jack London's short story Told in the Drooling Ward (1914) with an introduction by Ed Davis[9]
  • The book In All Things: A Return to the Drooling Ward[10] is a fictionalized account based on the author's experiences while training as a psychiatric technician at the former hospital.

See also

References
  1. "What to do with SDC?". The North Bay Business Journal. 2021-10-05. Retrieved 2021-12-19.
  2. Dowd, Katie (2016-06-16). "Historic asylums and sanitariums of Northern California". SFGATE. Retrieved 2021-12-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. "National Register #00001180: Sonoma State Home in Eldridge, California". Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  4. "History of Sonoma Developmental Center".
  5. "National Register of Historic Places Listings October 13, 2000". Retrieved 2008-03-29.
  6. "Transform SDC". Transform SDC.
  7. "SDC Site Assessment Process Resuming After Long Delay". 15 February 2018.
  8. Wiley, Walt (1988-11-19). "Bookstore for Jack London Lovers". Lodi News-Sentinel. p. 7. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
  9. bookfunnel. "Jack London's Told in the Drooling Ward (1914)". Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  10. Kirkus Reviews. "In All Things: A Return to the Drooling Ward". Retrieved 6 November 2020.
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