Belchertown State School
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Belchertown State School
The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. 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. The building complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Conditions and treatment of patients Located at 30 State Street, the campus contains 10 major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. State schools of Massachusetts were institutions for people with intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities, though at the time different terms were used. Throughout its first 40 years, Belchertown operated mostly without scrutiny from outside sources. Author Benjamin Ricci (whose son lived at the school, and who later led a class-action lawsuit protesting the conditions there) referred to the conditions as "horrific," "medieval," and "barbaric." Doctors a ...
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National Register Of Historic Places In Hampshire County, Massachusetts
__NOTOC__ This is a list of properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register properties and districts; these locations may be seen together in a map. There are 83 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the county, including 3 National Historic Landmarks. Current listings See also * List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts * National Register of Historic Places listings in Massachusetts This is a list of properties and historic district, districts in Massachusetts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 4,300 listings in the state, representing abou ...
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National Register Of Historic Places Listings In Hampshire County, Massachusetts
__NOTOC__ This is a list of properties on the National Register of Historic Places in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register properties and districts; these locations may be seen together in a map. There are 83 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the county, including 3 National Historic Landmarks. Current listings See also * List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts * National Register of Historic Places listings in Massachusetts This is a list of properties and historic district, districts in Massachusetts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 4,300 listings in the state, representing abou ...
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Belchertown, Massachusetts
Belchertown (previously known as Cold Spring and Belcher's Town) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 15,350 at the 2020 census. The town includes the census-designated place of Belchertown. Belchertown was formerly the home of the Belchertown State School. The land on which the school sat is, as of 2016, being redeveloped for mixed uses including residential, commercial and recreational. This includes the Lampson Brook Farm, used for community and sustainable agriculture, outdoor recreation, and wildlife preservation. History In 1716, the Equivalent Lands were sold by Connecticut Colony to residents who reside in present-day Connecticut and Massachusetts. Some of these lands were granted to Jonathan Belcher, the future Royal Governor of Massachusetts. Belchertown was first settled in 1731 and was officially incorporated in 1761 as Cold Spring, later the name ...
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut [Massachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət],'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to the east, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York (state), New York to the west. The state's capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city, as well as its cultural and financial center, is Boston. Massachusetts is also home to the urban area, urban core of Greater Boston, the largest metropolitan area in New England and a region profoundly influential upon American History of the United States, history, academia, and the Economy of the United States, research economy. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing, and trade. Massachusetts was transformed into a manuf ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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National Register Of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value". A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history, the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service (NPS), an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its goals are to help property owners and inte ...
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Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the architectural traditions of their colonial past. Fairly small numbers of Colonial Revival homes were built c. 1880–1910, a period when Queen Anne-style architecture was dominant in the United States. From 1910–1930, the Colonial Revival movement was ascendant, with about 40% of U.S. homes built during this period in the Colonial Revival style. In the immediate post-war period (c. 1950s–early 1960s), Colonial Revival homes continued to be constructed, but in simplified form. In the present-day, many New Traditional homes draw from Colonial Revival styles. While the dominant influences in Colonial Revival style are Georgian and Federal architecture, Colonial Revival homes also draw, to a lesser extent, from the Dutch Colonial ...
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State Schools (people With Disabilities)
State schools are a type of institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the United States. These institutions are run by individual states. These state schools were and are famous for abuse and neglect. In many states, the residents were involuntary sterilized during the eugenics era. Many states have closed state schools as part of the deinstitutionalisation movement. History Hopes of Reformers Many progressive reformers in the mid-1800s noticed the horrible conditions experienced by people with disabilities and wanted to improve them. Many people with disabilities were put in prison or poorhouses. Dorothea Dix described: Samuel Gridley-Howe and other reformers wanted to establish training schools where people with intellectual disabilities could learn and be prepared for society. The history of state schools and psychiatric hospitals are linked throughout history. State schools started being built in the United States in the 1850s. People oft ...
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Intellectual Disability
Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significantly impaired intellectual and adaptive functioning. It is defined by an IQ under 70, in addition to deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that affect everyday, general living. Intellectual functions are defined under DSM-V as reasoning, problem‑solving, planning, abstract thinking, judgment, academic learning, and learning from instruction and experience, and practical understanding confirmed by both clinical assessment and standardized tests. Adaptive behavior is defined in terms of conceptual, social, and practical skills involving tasks performed by people in their everyday lives. Intellectual disability is subdivided into syndromic intellectual disability, in which intellectual deficits associated with other medical and be ...
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Developmental Disability
Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, especially in "language, mobility, learning, self-help, and independent living".Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013)Developmental disabilities.Retrieved October 18, 2013 Developmental disabilities can be detected early on and persist throughout an individual's lifespan. Developmental disability that affects all areas of a child's development is sometimes referred to as global developmental delay. The most common developmental disabilities are: * Motor disorders, and learning difficulties such as dyslexia, Tourette's syndrome, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, Irlen syndrome, and dyscalculia. * Autism and Asperger syndrome are a series of conditions called autistic spectrum disorders that causes difficulties in communications. Autistic s ...
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Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer
Ruth Sienkiewicz-Mercer (September 23, 1950 – August 8, 1998) was a quadriplegic and American disability rights activist. She is best known for her autobiography ''I Raise My Eyes to Say Yes'', co-authored with Steven B. Kaplan. Biography Sienkiewicz-Mercer was born in Northampton, Massachusetts. She was a healthy baby, but had a severe bout of encephalitis at the age of five weeks. At thirteen months, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy resulting from the encephalitis. Her control over her entire body, except for her face and digestive system, was impaired; although not completely paralyzed, she could not care for herself or communicate through speech as most people know it. Due to her inability to communicate normally, she was diagnosed as an "imbecile" at the age of five. She lived mostly with her family until age eleven, with some brief stays in rehabilitation centers invariably terminated by her family's poor financial situation. As she approached her teens, it became in ...
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