Sylvester Scovil

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Western State Hospital Memorial Cemetery, Lakewood, Pierce County, Washington, USA

Notes: Originally the site was a US Army post called Ft Steilacoom. Later, the Army decommissioned the post and Washington State repurposed the facility as a mental hospital. The Western State Hospital Cemetery is a separate cemetery from the original post cemetery, Fort Steilacoom Cemetery. In 1871 an insane asylum opened there with the barracks serving as patient and staff housing. Fort Steilacoom is now the mental hospital called Western State Hospital. Hospital residents grew crops and orchards in the area and planted many of the Poplar trees that currently line the lake shore. More than 3,000 hospital residents are buried in the Fort Steilacoom or Western State Hospital Cemetery. As was with many hospital burials of the day, graves were either unmarked in marked rows or, like in this cemetery, only marked with a small concrete numbered block.