The first patients arrived at the new Vermont State Asylum for the insane in 1891. For the next 120 years, the hospital served thousands of Vermonters challenged by mental and other illnesses and employed hundreds of area residents. Designed by Rand and Taylor of Boston, it was linear in form with a central administrative building, connected pavilions, and a pair of unusual circular wards at either end. Over the years, the Vermont State Hospital complex expanded until the 1960's, when advances in the treatment of mental illness caused the patient population to decline. By 1978, state government offices began to occupy vacated space in the complex, and in the wake of floods in 2011, the hospital left Waterbury. Today, the original 1890's structure continues to provide office space for Vermont state government.