Belchertown State School
| Belchertown State School | |
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| Massachusetts Department of Public Health | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Belchertown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States |
| Coordinates | 42°16′29.84″N 72°24′54.41″W / 42.2749556°N 72.4151139°WCoordinates: 42°16′29.84″N 72°24′54.41″W / 42.2749556°N 72.4151139°W |
| Organization | |
| Hospital type | Mental retardation facility |
| Services | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Closed | December 31, 1992 |
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Belchertown State School
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| Location | Belchertown, Massachusetts |
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| Built | 1915 |
| Architect | Kendall, Taylor & Co. |
| Architectural style | Bungalow/Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Italianate |
| MPS | Massachusetts State Hospitals And State Schools MPS |
| NRHP Reference # | |
| Added to NRHP | July 19, 1994 |
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.
Located at 30 State Street, the 876-acre (3.55 km2) campus contains 10 major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. The state schools of Massachusetts were different from state hospitals; the latter were 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).
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 at the school had little regard for patients' mental capacity, evidenced by this quote:
His method of evaluating me consisted of looking me over during the physical exam and deciding that since I couldn't talk and apparently couldn't understand what he was saying, I must be an imbecile. [...] Since I couldn't ask him to speak up or repeat what he said, he assumed I was a moron. (Sienkewicz-Mercer p38)
Attendants on the wards were overworked, with dozens of patients in each ward. Because there was not enough time for proper toilet care, residents were left "half-naked rolling in their own excrement." Healthy teeth were often removed from handicapped patients to make feeding them easier.
Those who were severely physically handicapped were left in their beds the entire day, without any form of entertainment. Patients unable to feed themselves were force-fed by the attendants (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 42); when it was necessary to move a patient, the attendants did so roughly, sometimes causing injuries. As a result of this gross mistreatment, some patients were prone to "moaning in the hallways," "reaching into [their] diapers and spreading whatever [they] found all over, [...] repeatedly banging their heads against the walls," (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 50) or any of a number of other responses. Additionally, the facility suffered from vermin infestation.
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