Governor A.G. Brown made the first public proposition to establish a hospital
for the insane in 1846.  In 1848, the Mississippi Legislature appropriated funds for the original facility, which opened in 1855 at the present site of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.  In 1900, the name of the hospital was changed from "Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum" to "Mississippi State Insane Hospital."

In 1935, the psychiatric hospital was moved to the community of Howell which was then the site of the state penal colony.  Located near the current towns of Brandon, the area was renamed "Whitfield" in honor of Gov. Henry L Whitfield

"The Mississippi State Insane Hospital" was renamed "Mississippi State Hospital"