During its history, thousands of people were treated and worked there. A self-contained community on 685 acres, the hospital generated it's own heat, light and power for as many as 58 buildings, and raised livestock and grew produce for as many as 2,220 patients and 900 employees at its peak.
The hospital claimed to be the first mental health facility to be built on the "cottage plan" with individual buildings to allow for better light ventilation, easier classification, and to create a more homelike environment. To this end, sitting and work rooms were on the first floor and sleeping quarters on the upper floors.
During the Kennedy Administration, in the early 1960s, Congress passed a law requiring that all mental health patients in the United States be housed or hospitalized in the least restrictive environment possible. In the early seventies, as a result of this law, patients, guardians, and parents of patients filed a class action suit against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to require the DMH to conform with the federal law. In 1974, a federal court consent decree was entered into by the DMH resulting in the relocation of most mental patients from isolated mental institutions to community based halfway houses and hospitals.
The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Although the buildings are shuttered, the grounds are open to the public from 6 am to dusk. It has been used as a filming location for major motion pictures, including Shutter Island and The Box. Currently committees are in the process of developing a re-use plan. Abutters have stalled their work.
The complete set of Medfield Insane Asylum images can be viewed on Flickr: http://bit.ly/tYu90X. I intend to head back there soon to go shoot the farm and the cemetery where 843 patients were buried.
If you decide to go here, please exercise abundant caution for your personal safety.
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