St Joseph’s Retreat

Dearborn’s Mental Hospital

In 1860, the Daughers of Charity established the Michigan State Retreat, a private mental hospital along Michigan Avenue near what is now Corktown in Detroit. The organization acquired property and built a much larger facility in Dearborn known as St Joseph’s Retreat in 1886. You can learn more about the history of St Joseph’s Retreat in an article found in the Spring-Summer 1964 Dearborn Historian.

St Joseph’s Retreat in Dearborn – circa 1910
St Joseph’s Retreat in Dearborn
Outside St Joseph’s Retreat around the early 1960s

St Joseph’s Retreat was located at the northeast corner of what is now Outer Drive and Michigan Avenue. It was demolished in Spring 1962.

St Joseph’s Retreat after its 1962 demolition

We’ve digitized a rare 1910 souvenir book of St Joseph’s Retreat that can be browsed by clicking on the image below.

A photocopy of an 1892 St Joseph’s Retreat report can also be browsed here

Front Lobby at St Joseph’s Retreat
Staircase inside St Joseph’s Retreat
Music Hall in St Joseph’s Retreat
Clinic Room at St Joseph’s Retreat
Game Room at St Joseph’s Retreat
Private parlor on second floor – circa 1890s
Patient room at St Joseph’s Retreat – circa 1890s
Later picture of a St Joseph’s Retreat patient room
Patient getting an x-ray at St Joseph’s Retreat
Ladies Recreation Room at St Joseph’s Retreat – circa 1890s

Land owned by St Joseph’s Retreat was gradually sold off starting in the 1930s. A parcel sold off was used for the current Dearborn High School and another parcel was used for Westborn Mall.

The site of Asylum FIeld, a former athletic field owned by St Joseph’s Retreat, pictured in 1957. It was eventually used as the site for Westborn Mall.
Dearborn Hospitals