1932
The first graduates from B.C.'s School of Psychiatric Nursing receive their diplomas.
1930
The 675-bed Female Chronic Unit, later called East Lawn, opens. The majority of the females at the Public House for the Insane are transfer to the Female Chronic Unit. B.C.'s first training School for Psychiatric Nurses is established in the new building. The Public House for the Insane focuses solely on the care of the cognitively disabled, especially children.
1924
The Acute Psychopathic Unit, later called Centre Lawn, opens at Essondale.
1919
B.C.'s first forensic psychiatric facility opens: the Provincial Mental Home for the Criminally Insane, at Colquitz (Saanich District) on Vancouver Island.
1913
The Hospital for the Mind is officially opened, taking 300 of the most seriously ill patients (all male) from the Public House of the Insane. The building is renamed the Male Chronic Building and was renamed in 1950 to West Lawn. The Public Hospital for the Insane then served exclusively in the treatment of women until 1930.
1912
John Davidson, Provincial Botanist, establishes western Canada's first botanical garden and arboretum on the Essondale grounds believing that the therapeutic effects of the garden will benefit the patients. The garden later moves to the new UB.C. campus in 1916 but the unique collections of trees remain. Colony Farm gains a reputation as the best farm in Western Canada, known for its abundant crops and productive dairy farm.
1909
Construction begins on the new "Hospital for the Mind"; later to be called Essondale, in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young, the provincial cabinet minister who advocated that the new hospital be built.
1905
The Coquitlam site is cleared using mostly patient labour. Colony Farm, located down the hill from the new site (and now home to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital), is established to grow food for the PHI.
1904
B.C. government purchases Colony Farm and 1,000 acres in rural Coquitlam for the construction for a new psychiatric hospital, now known as Riverview Hospital.
1901
The psychiatric literature lists the principle causes of insanity as heredity, intemperance, syphilis and masturbation.