The asylum was built in the 1800s as a place for the mentally insane. It was shut down 20 years later when it was found out about the way the staff abused their patients. The way they looked after them for 20 years was at first overlooked by the state, allowing cruel treatment and horrific experiments to be carried out, leaving patients disfigured, mutilated or even dead. Rumours were that some patients may have even been buried in the basement before the incinerator was installed in the 1900's. When they did find out what was happening it was shut down right away. Some of the staff fearing what may happen commited suicided at the premises. The ones that were left were sent out of state to other jobs. The patients that were left were sent to different hospitals throughout the state. After there was a fire at the building it was rebuilt and opened as a school and it was renamed F E Burleson Elementary School. In 2000 the school was relocated to different premises. The building is now often referred to as The Old Burleson Building.

The old asylum is known to be a very haunted place were many sad tortured souls have remained to wander. The basement as a very unhappy feeling which some say immediatly impresses their sadness and pain upon you.