Angels of mercy.

Mississippi State Hospital (MSH), the nation's largest mental health treatment facility, is celebrating 150 years of caring for Mississippians who at one time had few places to go for help. Dramatic changes in treatments and technologies over the past century and a half mean that, for today's patients, there is more hope than ever.

In 1855, MSH was founded as Mississippi Lunatic Asylum on the site now occupied by the University of Mississippi Medical Center. When facilities deteriorated, a new hospital, now called Mississippi State Hospital, was built in 1935 on more than 3,000 acres in rural Rankin County. With its colonial-style buildings and landscaped grounds, the new facility looked more like a college campus than a traditional psychiatric institution. The hospital had its own farms, power plant, post office, and railway station.

Other highlights of the hospital's history include the opening of a Chemical Dependency Unit in 1980, the creation of a Community Services Division in 1982, and the establishment of a unit for adolescents in 1993. Visitors to the campus today can get a first-hand glimpse into history at the hospital's museum, which opened in 2000 in an old hydrotherapy room.

As part of the anniversary celebration, MSH has compiled a cookbook, Cookin' With Friends, with more than 600 recipes from employees and community members. (For a recipe from the book that's nearly as old as the hospital itself, see "Grandmother Love's Pecan Cakes," pg. 120.) In addition, the hospital is offering a video called "Through Their Eyes: 150 Years of Caring" that features interviews and archival film footage. All proceeds from the cookbook, $22, and video, $10, will go to Friends of MSH. To order or for more information on the hospital, call 601/351-8377 or see www.msh.state.ms.us.