SALEM, Ore. -- A monument to more than a century of Oregon’s mental health treatment is coming down -- and on Wednesday the future began to take shape.

Governor Ted Kulongoski and Senator Peter Courtney took part in the groundbreaking for the new wing of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

KGW photo

Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

It will replace the deteriorating J Building that’s been in operation for 125 years.

Officials said the five-year construction project will result in a 620-bed, 700,000-square-foot hospital set for completion in 2011.

 Background: New state hospital

A second hospital with a capacity of 360 beds was scheduled to open in Junction City in 2013.

“We are well past the time to replace this old and decrepit building,” Courtney said in a news release.

Visitors and history buffs got one last chance on September 13 to tour the J Building -- site of the 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the cuckoo’s Nest.”

Find out more: OregonDHS

A recent U.S. Justice Department report that found severe defects in the care of patients, The Associated Press reported last January.

“Today’s groundbreaking comes after years of work to build an Oregon system we can all be proud of and that will offer real help and real hope to Oregonians with mental illness,” Kulongoski said.