Belchertown State School

USA / Massachusetts / Belchertown /
The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Located at 30 State Street, the 876-acre campus comprised of ten 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 was 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. It was later discovered that since its inception the residents—some of whom had lived on the wards their entire lives—were being terribly mistreated and abused by the staff; author Benjamin Ricci referred to the conditions there 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, and as a result their treatment of the residents was nothing short of atrocious. Because there was not enough time for proper toilet care, residents were left "half-naked rolling in their own excrement". Those who were severely physically handicapped were left in their beds the entire day, without any form of entertainment. Patients who were unable to feed themselves were force-fed by the attendants (Sienkewicz-Mercer, p. 42), and when it was necessary to move a patient they did so roughly, causing injuries to the patient. 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. The Belchertown State School is on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also www.purgatorydoc.com/

See also www.1856.org/belchertown/belchertown.html
See also www.opacity.us/comments/?filter=gal&val=110
See also www.juiceenewsdaily.com/0105/news/haunted_massachusetts...
See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchertown%2C_Massachusetts

Photos^ lostcity.info/amerika/83-zabroshennaya-gorodskaya-shkol...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belchertown_State_School
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   42°16'29"N   72°24'53"W

Comments

  • The State School (as we called it in town) seems to have a deserved bad rap, but I know that in my life time the people I knew that worked there really did there best to make peoples lives better. It was a good thing that it closed down and the clients were moved into group homes. Haunted? I doubt it. Never saw that growthless patch either and I spent a lot of my childhood on the grounds because my mother worked there.
  • ok... My mom's sister went there and she told me that they treated her unfairly. This is where she died because the conditions were so bad. Last summer my dad and I went on a bike ride to the State Schools and we entered one of the buildings that still stand there. When we entered, we kept the door opened so that we could have some light and then the door slammed shut behind us. So... you tell me if the Belchertwon State Schools are haunted? I have been in all the buildings that are still around the area and they ALL have a creepy feeling to them.
  • me and my friends went last sunday and went in some of the buildings and inside admissions is x-rays perscriptions information that should not be there. anyways we were on the 3rd floor dean on the 1st w the EVP i believe its called that we listend last night and their are two different voices saying who are u guys and then 10 sec later u hear im phyco no lie
  • sure did i got the proof!!!
This article was last modified 13 years ago