The grounds of Texas's oldest psychiatric facility — established 1856 — where roughly 3,000 patients were buried, most in unmarked graves; a body relocation in the early 1900s left the full count uncertain.
4110 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78751
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The hospital grounds are an active state facility with restricted access. Public access to the cemetery is not guaranteed.
Access
Limited Access
Active state hospital campus; public access is restricted. Exterior viewable from Guadalupe St.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1856 · Oldest continuously operating psychiatric facility west of the Mississippi River · Approximately 3,000 patients buried on-site, most in unmarked graves · Cemetery relocation in early 1900s left disposition of some remains uncertain
The Texas State Lunatic Asylum — renamed Austin State Hospital in 1925 — was established by the Texas Legislature in 1856 and admitted its first patients the following year. Wikipedia's comprehensive entry on the facility documents its founding as the first state institution for the treatment of mental illness in Texas and one of the earliest west of the Mississippi River.
During the institution's first half-century, patients who died at the hospital were buried in an on-site cemetery. CultureMap Austin's 2017 investigative piece on the cemetery established that approximately 3,000 individuals were interred there over the course of the hospital's early operation, with most graves marked only by numbered metal tags rather than names. When the cemetery was relocated in the early twentieth century to make room for hospital expansion, the process of moving remains was apparently incomplete, and accounts suggest that some number of burials were not transferred to the new location.
The hospital has undergone extensive renovation in the modern era, including a major redevelopment project that replaced portions of the original Victorian-era campus. The CultureMap investigation, published in 2017, followed questions raised during that construction period about whether ground-disturbing work might encounter human remains from the original cemetery. The facility remains an active state psychiatric hospital operated by Texas Health and Human Services.
Sources
The Austin State Hospital's paranormal reputation flows directly from its documented history rather than from a single dramatic incident. The cemetery's uncertain status — approximately 3,000 burials, most unmarked, with a relocation in the early 1900s that may have left some remains behind — provides the historical substrate that paranormal researchers point to when cataloguing reported phenomena.
Ghost Texas and paranormal documentation for the site describe reports of disembodied voices and unexplained footsteps in sections of the campus near the former cemetery location. A figure described as a woman in white has been reported near the perimeter of the property, a figure type common in institutional ghost traditions. Witnesses in some accounts have attributed the sounds to the wards that housed patients who received electroshock therapy and lobotomies during the mid-twentieth century, when such treatments were standard psychiatric practice at state hospitals.
The hospital's active status means that paranormal investigation of its grounds is not possible through public access, and reports from the site come primarily from staff, construction workers during renovation periods, and historical researchers rather than from dedicated investigators. The uncertain disposition of the original cemetery remains is the feature that CultureMap Austin identified as the most historically anomalous aspect of the property.
The Austin State Hospital is an active psychiatric facility and the cemetery is not open to the public. Visitors with an interest in its history can view the perimeter from Guadalupe Street and access historical information about the site through the CultureMap Austin investigation and Wikipedia's detailed entry. The hospital's history is well documented in academic and archival sources.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Forest Park, IL
Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, grew from two adjacent cemeteries — German Waldheim (established 1873) and Forest Home (1876) — which merged in February 1969. The 220-acre site was chosen as a non-denominational burial ground, a policy that made it the only Chicago-area cemetery willing to accept the bodies of the Haymarket defendants in 1887.
Austin, TX
Oakwood Cemetery, originally known as City Cemetery, was established in 1839 as Austin's first municipal burial ground. Spread across 40 acres in central east Austin, it holds more than 23,000 interments dating to the founding of the city, including historically separate sections for Austin's Black, Latino, and Jewish communities. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Round Rock, TX
Round Rock Cemetery was established in the 1850s, making it one of central Texas's oldest surviving burial grounds. It became nationally known through its connection to outlaw Sam Bass, who was mortally wounded in the July 19, 1878 gunfight with Texas Rangers and died two days later on his 27th birthday. Adjacent to Bass's grave is a designated half-acre section containing 40–50 marked interments of enslaved people, many identified only by hand-grooved limestone rocks.