The Metropolitan State Hospital was an American
public hospital
A public hospital, or government hospital, is a hospital which is government owned and is fully funded by the government and operates solely off the money that is collected from taxpayers to fund healthcare initiatives. In some countries, this typ ...
for the
mentally ill
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
, on grounds that extended across parts of
Waltham,
Lexington, and
Belmont,
. Founded in 1927, it was at one time the largest and most modern facility of its type in Massachusetts. It was closed in January 1992 as a result of the state's cost-cutting policy of closing its mental hospitals and moving patients into private and community-based settings. The main complex of buildings has subsequently been redeveloped into apartments. The hospital campus was 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 ...
1994. The property also housed the
Gaebler Children's Center for mentally ill youth.
History
Th
Metropolitan State Hospitals founding originated in legislation passed by the state in 1900, mandating that the state take over care for the mentally ill, which had in some cases only been handled at the local level. Site selection for a facility in the
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...
area, where the demand for additional space was the greatest, took until 1926. Ground was broken on the hospital buildings in 1926, and the facility was formally dedicated in 1928, and opened on October 29, 1930. Construction continued until 1935, with some stages under
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
supervision. The complex cost $1.8 million and was considered the most modern mental health facility in the country.
The hospital's design was reflective of the third stage of development of facilities for the mentally ill, after the
Kirkbride Plan
The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings (or simp ...
and the cottage/colony system. It also reflected the advent of roads rather than railroads as major transport arteries, as it was not located near any railroad lines. Its buildings were designed in the
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 archi ...
style by Gordon Robb, with landscaping, based on principles laid down by the
Olmsted Brothers
The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...
, by R. Hayward Loring. At its peak, the facility had a patient population of nearly 2,000.
The grounds included the Met-Fern cemetery, a burial site it shared with the
Fernald School.
In 1978, Metropolitan State patient Anne Marie Davee was murdered by another patient, Melvin W. Wilson.
The facility was closed in 1992 during a deinstitutionalization movement when most state mental hospitals in Massachusetts shut down and patients were placed in smaller group settings. The property was unused until redevelopment began in 2007.
Redevelopment and open space
In 2007, some of the complex's residential wards located in the Lexington portion of the property were adaptively repurposed for conventional residential use as part of larger apartment complex development known as Avalon at Lexington Hills. The Administration Building, pictured above, stands in Waltham. A number of the former hospital buildings were incorporated into the new development including the former Kline Hall which now houses marketing offices, Lexington's cable access station, an auditorium and a fitness area. A large concrete relief from the medical-surgical building has been installed outside the building as a memorial to the state hospital. The extensive wooded grounds are open to the public and protected in perpetuity from further development. The trails include part of the Western Greenway open space, connecting to the Rock Meadow conservation area in Belmont to the east and, according to plans, in 2009, to the Middlesex County Hospital area to the west.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
Metropolitan State HospitalMassachusetts Department of Mental Health
* . (Various documents).
Local History & Genealogy - Waltham Room
with information on the closing of the hospital
Waltham Land Trust: The Western GreenwayThe area in the OpenStreetMap
shows trails.
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1927
Hospitals established in 1927
Psychiatric hospitals in Massachusetts
Hospitals in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Waltham, Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Lexington, Massachusetts
Belmont, Massachusetts
Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Waltham, Massachusetts
Defunct hospitals in Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Hospitals disestablished in 1992