By Michael Perna Jr.
Contributing Writer
WORCESTER – In 1829, after the Massachusetts state legislature initiated a study to determine what conditions existed in each city and town in the state regarding the care and treatment of people with mental conditions, it was found that said “lunatics” were kept in “dark dungeons,” “dressed in rags” with “no bed, filthy straw, no orifice for lights…air so fetid as to produce nauseousness” and so on.
Noble intentions
The following year, it was decided to build a “lunatic hospital” that could house 120 patients, the goal being to “restore” inmates to “health.” It was decided to locate the facility on a 12-acre plot of land on Summer Street in Worcester. The location was chosen due to being close enough to needed markets and so on, but far enough away from local neighborhoods so as not to cause issues with residents. By 1833 a huge building was erected, with two wings located on either side of a central administration building, one wing each for males and females.
Patients were then separated by their “social standing and type of illness.” The surrounding area was used as fields where inmates could help grow fruits and vegetables that would then be used to feed the hospital’s population. Known as the Worcester Insane Asylum, this was the first facility of its type in Massachusetts. The hospital superintendent was Dr. Samuel Woodward, a well-known figure in the treatment of mental illnesses.
At first, the hospital used what were described as “moral treatment principles,” stressing individualized treatment and a “healthy, comfortable environment,” but over time the facility became overcrowded. This resulted in changes in treatment, which included such things as shock therapy and hydrotherapy.
Expansion of capacity
By 1836, two additional wings were added to the building, which nearly doubled the number of patients that could be housed. Despite this, the demand for services continued to increase. More facilities were requested from the state, based on the need for “separate accommodations for imbeciles, the violently insane, African Americans, and immigrants.”
By the 1870s it was decided to construct an entirely new facility. The new complex, completed in 1876 at a cost of over a million dollars, was located on the eastern edge of the city, off what is now known as Belmont Street. The main building, known as the Kirkbride complex, had an elaborate structure in what is known as gothic architecture, a building style that dates back to the Middle Ages in Europe.
A series of problems
Even with the larger hospital, problems soon returned. With a much larger patient population, more fields were required to help supply food. As the city of Worcester’s population grew, the area of land available to the hospital shrank. Soon it was necessary to purchase large parcels of land in Shrewsbury, where more crops could be grown to help feed the patients. Other problems arose due to a failing water supply, inadequate dining and bathing facilities, faulty wiring which ran the risk of fires, and so on.
A strike by the hospital’s nurses in 1902 highlighted these issues, which only continued to worsen as the facility’s population continued to grow.
By 1901, a facility which would become known as the Grafton State Hospital, was opened to ease crowding and give non-violent patients a place to “engage in therapeutic work in a rural environment.”
The large-scale operation in Worcester housed thousands of patients. It was so well known that Life magazine ran an article about the hospital in 1949.
Another improvement was the building of the Bryan Building in 1958, which helped ease crowded conditions. Little by little, patients were transferred from the older facility to the Bryan Building. The original Kirkbride Building, which eventually was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, was abandoned in 1985. In 1991, several fires damaged much of the Kirkbride Building.
Tarnished legacy
As time went on, institutions such as what had now become known as the “Worcester State Hospital” became viewed as “barbaric” and “human warehouses.” Efforts were increased to use social workers, outpatient care or anti-psychotic drugs to treat people who previously would have been housed in these facilities.
The building itself was torn down in 2008, with a rebuilt clock tower, what was known as the Hooper Turret, and the Hale Building being the only portions left standing.
In 2009, construction of a new hospital, to be known as the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, was begun. The new facility was completed in 2012.
The old clock tower is a poignant reminder of the old Worcester State Hospital’s history.
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