Mount View Lunatic Asylum

The Mount View Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital located on near the Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand. Government House is now located on what were the asylum grounds. Work began in 1872, and the hospital opened in May 1873. It replaced Karori Lunatic Asylum, the first asylum in the country that was independent of a prison. Mount View was designed to accommodate around 50 patients.
In May 1873, 27 patients moved from Karori to Mount View. An expansion was required soon after the asylum opened to accommodate more patients, so in 1879 the two-storey wooden structure was enlarged with a block for 50 male patients, and another wing was built during 1880. Around 1885 two additional wards were constructed. By 1905 there were 250 patients but within the next five years, they were transferred to Porirua Lunatic Asylum and other asylums, before Mount View's closure in 1910.