The state schools of Massachusetts were different from state hospitals; the latter was for the mentally ill, while state schools were institutions for the mentally defective (the name is a misnomer, as they did not generally involve any form of education). Sienkiewicz-Mercer's book refers to a young male nurse who worked at Belchertown in the late 1960s and early 1970s who later became a junior senator from Massachusetts. [1], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchertown_State_School, http://www.1856.org/belchertown/belchertown, https://asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Belchertown_State_School&oldid=34917, Bungalow/Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Italianate, Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded. It is said that this school is haunted. To aid the horror and the bad reputation, even more, the handicapped patients had their strong teeth taken out so that the whole process of feeding them would be easier. Vitkus is now an advocate for people with developmental disabilities and is vice president of the Advocacy Network. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. Author: Matthew Hester CC BY-ND 2.0. It was later discovered that since its inception the residents—some of whom had lived on the wards their entire lives—were being terribly mistreated and abused by the staff; author Benjamin Ricci referred to the conditions there as "horrific", "medieval" , and "barbaric". At first, the school performed as expected, but pretty soon things started to take a different turn and not for the better. ... Plymouth County Hospital, paul a dever state school, asylums, urban, Belchertown state school, hospital, explore, Medfield State Hospital, ward, tuberculosis hospital, Taunton State Hospital, abandoned, mental, Boston. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. What is the best way to get into an American law school when you have a solid undergraduate background in philosophy? In addition, expertise on "the infirm" became a specialty in the medical world, which in turn helped shape social policy. From 1922 to 1992, Belchertown State School served developmentally disabled children in Western Massachusetts for 70 years. This group is curated by Mary Grace, a college admissions expert and founder of TheYoungProfessionista.com. Opened in 1915, Belchertown State School would eventually encompass almost 900 acres of land and would become the largest employer in … In its beginnings the school had it all, including gymnastic classes, a grammar school and there was even a kindergarten and a music teacher. The exterior of the school. Located at 30 State Street, the 876-acre (3.55 km2) campus contains ten major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. Damn.. it was frickin' freezing! This page is dedicated to the history and memorialization of Belchertown State School. It was written by Benjamin Ricci, who sent his six-year-old son Bobby to live there not knowing what the conditions were like, and who was involved in the initial 1972 lawsuit. The following video is a fifty-four minute video on the history surround Belchertown State School created by Arbez Productions. Escape From Abandoned Belchertown State School is another point and click room escape game. The end of this school and its internal dreadfulness was nearing for the “The Tragedy of Belchertown” newspaper article exposed it all. Unfortunately you are trapped alone in it. Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was founded in 1922 and was primarily used to house patients deemed at the time as mentally … The horrendous conditions at Belchertown were revealed in 1971 in a newspaper article entitled "The Tragedy of Belchertown." Into the refrigerator. More recent improvements have been the makeover of Foley Field into a baseball diamond for the local Little League team, and restoration of the overgrown cemetery (with numbers marking the graves) to appear cleaner and properly memorialize dead patients by name.
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