Building Workers at Claremont Hospital for the Insane

Claremont Hospital for the Insane was established in 1903, becoming known as the Claremont Mental Hospital in 1933. It was a government-run facility that accommodated children and young people with intellectual and other disabilities until the hospital closed in 1972. The hospital complex was designed by John Harry Grainger in consultation with Dr. S.H.R. Montgomery and consisted of approximately 25 buildings, with Montgomery Hall at the centre. Building started at Claremont in 1903 and men from the overcrowded Fremantle Asylum were housed in the new workshops and stores buildings as soon as they were habitable. By 1907 the female block was built and women and girls started being transferred from Fremantle. At the outset of World War II, part of the hospital was taken over by the military pending the construction of the military's own hospital facility at what today is Hollywood Private Hospital. The Claremont Hospital closed in 1972, as part of a restructure that resulted in a psychiatric section (Graylands Hospital) and a section for people with intellectual disabilities (Swanbourne Hospital).