It's a beautiful building.

I have a class currently on the Psychology of Death and Dying and my instructor was a councilor for terminally ill patients at Worcester State hospital. As she was talking about some of the patients who were particularly memorable, I was thinking about Mott's pictures. It sort of came full circle for me and made me think a bit more about the actual people who lived here.

Well, that's not really the only reason. It probably is a factor but in the case of this hospital, there were other proposals. A local college thought about using the theater for their performing arts. There were ideas kicked around. The real issue was that asbestos abatement and the necessary renovations to make the building safe again were expensive. The town could make tax money off the low income housing units which will be put here. It's all about the money. It was even put on the ballot for the townspeople to vote whether they wanted to save it and it was rejected 60/40. I've been researching this place lately since I live close and I have a college paper to do.

Having now read a good portion of the comments on this site, I find the viewpoints of some of the individuals quite interesting. In order to objectively look at these institutions one must leave their preconceived notions behind. Many of you are assuming that they were all torture chambers and all of these people were extremely tormeted because of the current condition of these buildings and they now look very scary. When these hospitals were in operation, they looked much better. Yes, people were mistreated at times in these institutions and the quality of care was nothing compared to the care that is now offered to individuals.

It seems what many people are saying is that these patients were cared for in an unethical way. This leads me to the essence of "Ethics". The word ethics means "societal norms". Therefore, unethical treatment would be treating the patients in a way which was not acceptable to society. Treating the mentally ill as second class citizens was very much accepted during those days. Why do you think all those people were there? If your family did not have the means or the time or interest in you to care for you properly, you wound up here. What I'm saying is that the staff wasn't acting unethically if the care they were providing was consistent with the expectations of society at that time. As time went on, society changed it's view of the care of the mentally ill or developmentally delayed. That said, there is no excuse for abuse. That was wrong and should not have happened but the general operation of most of these institutions was fairly consistent, at least in the beginning, with societal expectations.

Another thing I' m finding interesting from the site is how many people think they see ghosts in the photographs. There may be, and likely are, ghosts at these sites but I doubt that you're going to find one in a photograph on a website. Since Motts is an artist, I bet he goes over every pic very carefully. If there was a ghost in a photo, I think he would have seen it. I get a chuckle out of the few people who post after each pic "Did you see the girl over there?" or "Do you see the body in the corner?" It's funny.

I'm really enjoying reading your insights, Lynne. They can only come for someone with many years of experience. There are not enough people with that sort of dedication.

BTW, the beginning of my post was not meant to be know-it-all like. I have a bit of experience with these situations. My uncle who is older now is developmentally delayed and was in a home for children with limitations. The home was closed down due to abuse and he now receives money from a class action lawsuit. Bad things happened back then but they weren't all terrible all the time.

Probably a dumb question but how do we know it's the "violent ward"? Was there a sign or something? Seems kind of rude if there was. That's like saying "Here's where we keep the real crazy ones".

Ragdoll,

I will email you. On my way to class right now actually:)

Thanks for the info. I wish that something could be done to save it. It's a beautiful building. Many people in my area think it should be demolished because it points out that we housed the mentally ill in poor conditions. I'm actually going to school as a history major to (hopefully) later become an activist to preserve historic buildings. They're disappearing right and left. Right now in my town, they are building a new jail and the old one will just be knocked down despite how old and beautiful it is. The Community Development group offered to restore this beautiful old bank building in my town and because they didn't get it done and it's been lingering the project is about to be shut down. The building will either be torn down or renovated into a restaurant or something like that.

Your site makes me even more sure of what I want to do for a living. The buildings are important to our history. Once they're gone, they're gone. Your work is important.

Motts,

How much of the buildings were left? I live close to NSH and last time I was up there, a large portion of one building was knocked down and there were bulldozers everywhere. Is the majority of the hospital still there? I thought maybe the part I was seeing that was demolished was where the portico fell down a while back.

I heard that the construction has been stopped because of difficulty locating the unmarked gravees. Not sure how much truth there is to that.

This was probably a stray looking for someplace warm to sleep in the winter. Possibly froze to death or died of old age. I doubt someone shut the cat up in there to die.

I live about 25 minutes away from NSH. It is true that it's being torn down so I'm a bit confused by the few of you who say that it's all still there. Construction began in Fall 2004 (I think) and when I was there a year ago, a large portion had been torn down. I am not sure if the rest of it has been taken down yet. I haven't gone up there. When I went up last year, I had wanted to take some black and whites of it and I could not get farther than the side of the road. The security guard drove right up near us and was just waiting for me to step foot onto the property. I know there are ways to get into the building (what's left of it) from the backside by the trails but from what I hear, it's so ridden with absestos and other toxic chemicals, it's not a good idea. I would love to hear from someone who knows when the construction is due to be finished. Last I knew, low income housing was going to be built over this location.

If anyone has an info about NSH, you can email me at tanya484@lycos.com. I was very disappointed when I heard it would be torn down. The last patients were let out in 1993. How could it be in such bad condition after being closed for only 12 years? It would have been wonderful to restore it and make a museum out of it.