Chamber

I want a print of this! You could discuss what the hell that table is for with everyone who comes over.

I am sure Lynn would tell us that it was for lining up the daily meds which would be dispensened through the opening.

Or a drop off point of some sort.

Lynn, help us here.

Hmm, that is very strange indeed. I was thinking something to do with hygenics...just because the style of glass. It is very odd though.
One may never know.

Where's Lynne? This is the first time i've beat her to a comment!! :-)

I know Ed, she must be on vacation:-)

THE GLASS BLOCK IS VERY WONDERFUL AND THAT LITTE HEAD ARCHED PEEK HOLE THINGY IS WONDERFUL AS WELL! THE ENTIRE PIC IS REALLY COOL AND IT ALSO GIVES OUT AN ART DECO FELL TO IT! FAB!

Motts, did that table extend through the glass block? Doesn't look low to the ground enough or comfortable enough to be a patient's room. Baffling to me, too! Maybe it was for ECT since the table is made of non-conductive marble?

Looks like old x-ray exam / radiation room... x-ray radiation back then was not known to be bad.

Well, holy guacamole (if I might add a religious comment in here)! What the heck is THAT? I love it! 8`-)

If you have a chance, Mr. Motts, could you describe that funky looking piece of wood or whatever it is with the arch cut in it that separates the inner chamber from the hall? Was it secure or did it swing back and forth?

This is incredible intreaguing (sorry for the bad spelling). I'm gonna ask around. See if anyone has a clue.

Mr. Motts, where was this area? (My standard question, huh)
-In a basement or a kitchen/utilitarian-looking area? (These blocks were used to draw in light where there was little.)

This is an operating room. You laid down with your head on the other side of the wall, so you couldn't ~see~ what they were doing to you.

I'm pretty sure they weren't doing surgery in the washroom.

it might have been for the dentist.

What else was in that little room with bigger part of the marble table? Might it have been some kind of storage closet and the cut out was for passing towels to pacients?

I asked my stepmom about this picture because she's worked at a few institutes and her mother did as well and she says it looks like it could've just been a wash room. Not for people but for clothing/bedding and other things. The hole could've been where they slid everything in for someone to sort through and wash.

She could be wrong though but it's just a guess. She said it's hard to depict without actually being there and knowing further details so we may never know the answer to this.

i am going to go with: your head in the whole and body hair pulled off from the other side

The only thing that this could possibly be in my mind is a work table. I picture the door being locked and a nurse or whomever putting something through the opening. The table, I feel was either a work table or simply a table to hold many items.

weren't all the tables used for people stainless steel? easier to clean? awesome lighting tho.

Well, obviously no one's head was going to be stuck through that hole as it was marble and not moveable....just to quell your suspicions...

I'm taking a guess on this one. I think that it was where a employee would hand the propper supplies through the hole such as uniforms, shoes etc.

My friend just told me about this place last night (the actual hospital). I plan on visiting this place soon and after seeing this photo I want to lay down on that slab. Just for the experience. Also impressive shots good work.

Hmm.... This must be where the space aliens probed their abductees... Is this anywhere near Roswell??? L-O-L!

Or... Maybe massage therapy...

Hey all, I started a group on myspace where we can discuss the Hospital... Check it out and join!
http://groups.myspace....foxborostatehospital

notice the lead glass walls...this would have been used for portable x-ray equiptment..i've seen this in a couple other hospitals and sure that this may be the same purpose..the windows wud have been cheaper at that time than regular lead lined walls

jesus! i don't know if i even want to know why there is a table and then a head sized hole on the other side! what did they do to ppl here! lol

As said before, they would perform experiments on them because they thought they were insane and useless to the world. Thus, they could be a medical discovery when experimented on. Most werent really insane either, alot autistic and a bunch just got a few "problems".

Dr. Sketch - help me . . . . . . . . . . . . .

hmmmmm, okay yep Dr. Sketch care to nibble on this one??????

Oh yeah, dontcha know, they used to tie them up nekkid and perform surgery on them just for fun! I knew one person who went in a man, and came out a woman! ;)
Shawn, you watch too many movies. Put down the remote and join the real world... At the least, show some proof of this happening, instead of just insulting our intelligence...

I think it wasan autopsy/mortuary type table, maybe they didn't like looking at the corpses face while performing procedures, especially with a drain in the floor, in the old days they bled people to cure them of certsain ailments, just a thought

If this was in the wash room, it may have been a place where they would store things like soap (when not in a dispenser ;-} ) or shampoo. The person coming in would receive their supplies through the slot in the wall and bring it back to this same place. Just a thought.

hey motts ...strange ... i was just in that room about 20 mins ago wondering the same thing everyone else is..but i got to get up close...very creepy.. I am part of a certain association in the Town Of Foxboro and I grew up there. Today was the first time I'd ever been inside and it was nothing short of facinating. Love the site!

The table looks very flimsy. It probably couldn't support the weight of a person

did anyone played fear ?

the glass is the same :)

Ok, ok, now could somebody still tell me what it is??

I HAD AN EMPHINANY!! Excuse my spelling by the way but I'm too lazy to look it up.

Since all the water stuff was in there, maybe, it was used as a sort of washing place, and youd but your head through the hole so it wouldn't get wet. And I know its not generally your typical bathtub, but come on. It has lots of other wet equpment.

Or, Or it could be...

A laundry thing. Put the pile on the "head" end, and the person would reach through grab it, fold it, place it on the other end....ect....

My lame attempt to understand =)

Its a vintage 1920's glass block -marble guillotine. Don't make 'em like they used to...

i have been watching this forum for a while on this picture and i have done some research... in many hospitals for the mentally challenged in the "olden days" they did labotamies (sorry for spelling) in washrooms because they got so messy. In most cases, they used some kinda of table that kept the patients head separated from the body. They did these operations to remove part of the brain believeing that it would "cure" the person, when in reality is crippled them. even more.... i believe that is what this table was for

Stranger, I'm curious as to the source this information came from. Would you please cite it for us?

Stranger, thats interesting, but, I'm not sure if I would go with that explanation.. I may be wrong but, weren't many lobotomies frontal? That wouldnt leave the doctor much room to work with ( i could be wrong, but It just appears that way to me)
It's pretty freekin interesting though.

I love the glass blocks and shiny green tiles. It will be interesting to find out what this was actually used for.

ummm. "lead glass" is a term used to describe the lead between the pieces, as in stained glass, or those old diamond shaped, pieced together windows on Tudor style houses. Leaded glass does NOT have the capabilities of LEAD. Jeeze. This glass would not shelter you from anything that lead would. OMG

PLUS, this is GLASSBLOCK, there is nothing "leaded" about it. Go to home depot and you can buy all you want for a few bucks each.

more a torture chamber

I don't know about everyone else, or if anyone will even read this or understand it. But this thing reminds me of the desk in Brazil that was shared through a wall.

8th shot down!
http://www.opacity.us/...dex.php?topic=4988.0

Used for hydrotherapeutic treatments

My aunts mother lost two children in a sledding accident - sled went in front of a car and killed them both. Her husband brought her to Foxboro State Hospital for a partial lobotomy. She is in her late 80's and has always been child-like since I've known her. Maybe the table was used for Lobotomies?

Thank god to ~ME and the time they had to take to look for the answer. I had been looking for about 9 months and just couldn’t find a thing. The closes I got was some German therapy thing. I went back into that hospital way to many times to look at that stupid table; thank goodness it’s not hunted. It all makes sense to me now. Thank you very much.

~Me is the best, ain't she? That's why we all love her. :-)

Today we call it Waterboarding.

eh,yeah some guy one the Noble Peace Prize in the 20's or 30' for coming-up with the notion of performing frontal lobotomies simply by using a hand held power drill.

(didn't know ~Me is female)

Several of the comments on this photo brilliantly illustrate the axiom "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing." People who choose to become doctors, psychologists, nurses, social workers, therapists, aides, etc. and to specialize in work with individuals with mental illness/developmental disabilities do it precisely *because* they believe those individuals are valuable, worthy of assistance and care, and have much to contribute to the world. The jobs are too hard unless you have those beliefs. This erroneous assumption that "they" considered the patients "useless to the world" may reflect a great deal more about the beliefs of the one who makes such an accusation than it does about "they" who are accused.

Autism is manifested in many different ways in different people. That's why there is not one simple picture of "autism." Instead, we have "autism spectrum disorders." Some people with this diagnosis may show evidence of it only in specific situations and need only a little support. Others have much more severe symptoms that seriously impair every facet of their lives, all day, every day, in ways that are almost impossible to imagine except by personal experience. It stresses the entire family, and parents of a child with an autism spectrum disorder have a much higher than average rate of divorce.

It takes far more than "just a few problems" to result in admission to a state psychiatric hospital. The decision to pursue commitment is only made when there are no other alternatives available or when the other, less restrictive options have been tried without success. "Insane" is not a blanket label given to someone who is a bit eccentric. Each disorder has specific criteria that must be present for the diagnosis to be made. I would be interested to learn what "insane" means to those who think the patients "were not really insane."

Lobotomies were an attempt to find some form of treatment that would help the patients who had not improved with the other treatment modalities available at the time. Some patients were helped. Others deteriorated further. When modern medications first became available, lobotomies were no longer done. As awful as we think they were, with our 20/20 hindsight, at the time they were seen as a last chance for someone who had not been helped by anything else available at the time. Just as today, there are people who seek out experimental treatments in the hope of finding some way to cure their cancer or halt the progression of dementia.

The idea of the Russian steam bath makes sense to me. When I go into a steam room, I feel like I am suffocating. I think I would like something like this, that kept my head in cooler, drier air and let my body benefit from the steam (and NO, this is NOT what is called waterboarding today!).

at first i thought what the hell are those holes, it appears to be used to cut of the head. Good thing theres a explanation under it.

Those glass blocks are actually very expensive nowadys.

i wish that they had just left the place alone and that stuff was still there, it's almost all redone now :(

clearly, its so that the person can breath when their body and that entire room is filled with steam....

there is nothing sinister about this particular treatment.... as opposed to many of the others that have been suggested in this thread! they have redone the whole place and its all up for rent - partly rented out already!

I can't see anything that reminds me to torture here - I'd rather think I would enjoy a steam bath like this nowadays when I go to a modern spa, because I hate the steam getting into my eyes and make my head feel about to explode like in a regular steam bath... very convinient, this vintage stuff!