The Danvers State Hospital

The Danvers State Hospital. . , Situated on the crest of Hathorne Hill with breathtaking panoramic views extending to Boston eighteen miles to the south, this was the site of the Danvers State Hospital from 1878 until 1992. , The establishment of the “Danvers State Lunatic Asylum” was part of a nineteenth century Massachusetts health reform movement designed to sympathetically care for those in the Commonwealth who suffered from mental illness. A large expanse of land, including the 257 foot high glacial drumlin known as “Hathorne Hill,” and the eventual purchase of other property created a campus of over 500 acres of land for hospital and ancillary purposes. , Construction of the Danvers State Hospital began in 1874. The original massive hospital building promoted a standardized method of asylum construction and mental health treatment originally developed by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809-1883). Treatment was conceived to include removing patients from an increasingly complex society resulting from the Industrial Revolution to an asylum. This asylum setting would consist of specially planned buildings and landscapes in a calming, fresh air environment, all promoting healing and recovery. , Nathaniel J. Bradlee (1829-1888), a prominent Boston architect, was consulting architect for the project, while James F. Ellis became the superintending architect. Danvers was an excellent example of the classic “Kirkbride Hospital,” consisting of a central administration building flanked by eight stepped-back patient wings. The design of the Danvers State Hospital was in the “Gothic Revival” style. The exterior included Danvers red bricks trimmed with contrasting gray Rockport granite. The roof was of slate. The central core of the complex contained offices, dining/kitchen facilities and a chapel, while the four wings on each side were devoted to patient care. Often called “The Castle Upon the Hill,” for its over 1.4 million dollar cost, the quarter-mile long Kirkbride structure was 3½ stories high and of rich architectural ornamentation, including towers and turrets. , The Danvers State Hospital was opened for the care of up to 450 patients beginning in May 1878. The land complex eventually included over 40 major and minor buildings. On the lower acreage was located a large and vibrant farm complex where animals were raised and extensive crops cultivated for in-house use. Wherever possible, patients were used in the operation of the hospital, including in many occupational therapy areas, as common laborers, and workers on the farm. , The Danvers hospital played a significant role in advancing trends in psychiatric treatment, including some treatments which by today's standards seem barbarous. Danvers was the first in the state to hire a woman doctor (1879), and the second to establish a nurses' training school (1889) and construct a nurses' residence (1898). A pathological laboratory was established in 1895 and the first social worker was hired in 1902. Community outreach programs were instituted in 1912. , In 1899, the Danvers Mirror newspaper described the hospital as one of “the most advanced institutions of the kind in the country, providing all practical means possible for intelligent treatments of insanity as a disease.” , Overcrowding and underfunding led to the decline of Danvers State Hospital beginning in the 1930s. Nevertheless, caretakers struggled to maintain programs that reflected the humanistic values of the early asylums. Success attracted unprecedented numbers of patients, however, who overwhelmed the hospital up through the mid-twentieth century. At its peak, the hospital attempted to care for over 2,600 patients. With the successful introduction of drug therapy and the growing concern for patient rights, such asylum facilities such as Danvers began to be phased out, with the last Danvers patients reassigned in 1992. , Construction in 2005-2007 gave new life to this abandoned Commonwealth of Massachusetts property by transforming it into a residential community. Four key elements of the original hospital campus have been preserved: the original 1878 Central Administration Building and two flanking residential wings, the system of winding drives lined by ancient trees, acres of open space which includes agricultural fields, pastures, and woodlands, and the cemetery used for the burial of hundreds of unclaimed patients who died at the hospital. Thanks to much concern, the cemetery is now rededicated with appropriate memorials. , The Danvers State Hospital was a facility in a time in which the general population attempted to alleviate the problems with many of its members with care and empathy that, though not always successful, was nobly attempted.