Lake Shore Behavioral Health, Inc. history

1889: Underhill Building is built to house black patients, previously sent to Nashville.

1927: Renamed to Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital (but commonly called "Lyons View").

1952: Tennessee Mental Health Association founded by Helen Ross McNabb.

1955: Tranquilizers introduced, leading to "open wards" where most patients can roam freely.

1956: Clement tours Eastern State, calls what he sees — including 984 patients sleeping on floor pallets because of lack of beds — sad but not surprising.

1957:Oak Ridge Mental Health Center, now Ridgeview, opens.

1959: Mental Health Center of Morristown, Tenn., now Cherokee Health, founded.

1960: $2 million Therapeutic Village opens; first of its kind in the country.

1961: State opens Moccasin Bend institution in Chattanooga.

1963: Federal Community Mental Health Act enacted to provide funding for community mental-health centers and to downsize mental hospitals.

1965: News Sentinel runs eight-part series alleging political corruption, overcrowding, unsafe accommodations and dumping of elderly who are not mentally ill at Eastern State.

1973:Institute opens "Learning Lab," offering patients and staff training in GED-preparatory, hospital-oriented, clerical, sheet-metal layout, basic electricity and blueprint-drawing courses.

Thus on October 31, 1976 the board had decided to change the hospital name to “Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.”

1977: Name changed to Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.

1982: State approves letting private hospitals bid to operate Lakeshore, but all bids too low.

State "census" of mentally ill among homeless suggests figure jumped from 12 percent in 1986 to 47 percent.

1992: Mayor Victor Ashe announces plans to convert some property into city park as Lakeshore downsizes.

In 1994, the agency added Supported as well as Family Living services for persons with intellectual disabilities.

In 1996, the not for profit Lakeshore Park Conservancy was founded and a public-private partnership with the City of Knoxville was formed, signaling a new chapter and furthering the transformation of the campus.

In 1997, Lakeshore initiated a contract with Cameron, Elk and McKean Office of Mental Retardation to open a facility in Kane, Pennsylvania for two persons with intellectual disabilities residing at Warren Sate Hospital.

2001: $1 million Community Access Grant gets indigent patients of Knox County Health Department and InterFaith Health Clinic services through Cherokee and Helen Ross McNabb Center.

In the fall of 2005, Lakeshore Community Services was offered the opportunity to present its programs to a number of individuals and their families who resided in Warren, Pennsylvania.

2006: State approves $4 million for new Knoxville psychiatric hospital.

In 2008, Lakeshore opened a small Adult Training Facility in Warren to serve individuals from these homes and from the community.