For almost fourty years (1905-1943), Joseph DeJarnette was the director of this hospital. Throughout his time there, he was sterilizing patients because of his theories on eugenics. Those same theories have been cited as the major influence behind the Nazi "Euthanasia programme," which called for the murder of those were who "incurably sick."
This building at a Virginia State Hospital was constructed in 1913 and designed to house noisy patients. It was eventually named after the former superintendent some years later.