The remains of Hartwood Hospital, a 19th-century psychiatric hospital with imposing twin clock towers, are the main feature of the village, even after its closure under the direction of the Lanarkshire Health Board in 1998. Like many other Victorian institutions in the area such as Gartloch Hospital, Stonyetts, Lennox Castle and Kirklands, the inception of the Community Care Act 1990 gave rise to a more community-based focus for long-term mental health care, and the consequent closure of long-term psychiatric hospitals. An annex of the main hospital, Hartwoodhill Hospital, still exists one mile to the north east of the village, along the unclassified road which forms the main thoroughfare.

The original hospital was overseen by Dr Archibald Campbell Clark, the medical superintendent, and was involved with the inception of modern psychiatric therapies such as occupational therapy, ECT and industrial involvement. In the hospital style of the time, Hartwood was entirely self-sustaining, with its own farm, gardens, reservoir, graveyard, staff houses, etc.