The Brandon State School, also known historically as the Brandon Training School and the Vermont State School for Feeble Minded Children, was a psychiatric facility for the care and treatment of children in
Brandon, Vermont
Brandon is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,129.
History
On October 20, 1761, the town of Neshobe was chartered to Capt. Josiah Powers. In October 1784, the name of the town was chang ...
. Founded in 1915, it was Vermont's first state-funded residential facility for the care of the mentally handicapped. It was closed in 1993, a consequence of changing policies in the treatment and care of such individuals. The surviving buildings of the property,
now converted to other uses, were listed on the
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 v ...
in 1999.
History
The school was established as the Vermont State School for Feeble Minded Children by an act of the state legislature in 1912, and was formally opened in 1915 on this campus, which then consisted of purchased from the estate of Henry Watson, located west of
U.S. Route 7
U.S. Route 7 (US 7) is a north–south United States highway in western New England that runs for through the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The highway's southern terminus is at Interstate 95 (I-95) exit 15 ...
about one mile northwest of
Brandon village. In 1917 the state authorized the construction of a dormitory, along with an administration building and a service building, and developed plans for additional facilities. By the late 1930s, the school, renamed the Brandon State School in 1929, had four dormitories, classroom buildings, and other support facilities. The school was again renamed, to the Brandon Training School, in 1956.
[
In the late 1960s and 1970s, federal requirements forced the school to increase employee/student ratios, and resulted in a gradual shift in treatment of mentally handicapped youth to smaller group home settings scattered across the state. Raymond Mulcahy, who was the Superindent during this time period, was a strong advocate for de-institutionalization and was a positive force for change for the patients at Brandon Training School. Under his leadership, the Training School began to place more and more residents into community housing. The school was permanently closed in 1993. The school's campus, many of its buildings handsome Colonial Revival structures designed by ]Burlington
Burlington may refer to:
Places Canada Geography
* Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Burlington, Nova Scotia
* Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington"
* Burlington, Prince Edward Island
* Burlington Bay, no ...
architect Frank Lyman Austin, have since been repurposed into apartments and commercial facilities.[
]
See also
*
* Brattleboro Retreat
The Brattleboro Retreat is a private not-for-profit mental health and addictions hospital that provides comprehensive inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient treatment services for children, adolescents, and adults.
Located just north ...
* Vermont State Hospital
Vermont State Hospital, alternately known as the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane and the Waterbury Asylum, was a mental institution built in 1890 in Waterbury, Vermont to help relieve overcrowding at the privately run Vermont Asylum for the In ...
References
External links
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Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont
Colonial Revival architecture in Vermont
School buildings completed in 1915
Buildings and structures in Brandon, Vermont
Psychiatric hospitals in Vermont
National Register of Historic Places in Rutland County, Vermont
Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont
1915 establishments in Vermont