Topeka ? In 75 years, Topeka State Hospital buried more than 1,100 patients in its cemetery. Only 19 graves were marked, perhaps because of the stigma attached to the mental illnesses treated there.

But at 2 p.m. Wednesday, the state and a local group dedicated to preserving the former hospital’s history plan to unveil a plaza with two granite monuments, each 6 feet tall and 13 feet long, with the name of each patient buried in the cemetery.

The hospital closed in 1997, as the state pursued a policy of treating as many mentally ill Kansans in homelike settings as possible.

Barbara Hauschild, who’s written a book about the hospital’s history, worked in a building near the cemetery before the hospital closed. She recalled taking a closer look at the cemetery, which is about as wide as a professional football field but 30 yards longer.

“I was just appalled there were so few headstones,” she told The Topeka Capital-Journal. “It goes back to the stigma of mental illness.”

The state appropriated $40,000 for the monuments, and the local Friends of Topeka State Hospital raised an additional $5,000.

The hospital began burying patients in its cemetery in 1879, and the last of 1,157 were buried in 1954. During those years, patients could remain at the hospitals for the remainder of their lives, and they were buried at the cemetery if their families didn’t claim their bodies.

Former hospital worker Dean Nelson said even some of his co-workers didn’t know the cemetery existed. He suspects most patients buried there were forgotten by their friends and family.

Nelson, who began working as an aide in 1950 and retired as patient ombudsman 41 years later, called the plaza “wonderful.”

“Building the monument shows a respect they are certainly due,” he said.