Medfield State Hospital and Cemetery: In My Footsteps 4K New England

The Terrifying True Story of Medfield State Hospital

In Their Footsteps: New England History - Medfield State Hospital

 

    The town of Medfield is home to 12,904 people (as of 2018), and sits 17-miles southwest of Boston. It contains several beautiful hiking areas, shops and restaurants mixing a touch of city with the layout of a mid-sized town. Medfield is also home to what might be the creepiest place on all of Massachusetts. For a century a campus existed in town but this was no college. A hospital existed in town but it was not purely medical. It was the Medfield State Hospital. It was a spot that became inspiration for film and television and this is its story.

The Medfield State Hospital grounds in 2019.

    Facilities to help treat the mentally ill have been around in America for centuries. The first such operation opened in 1752 in Philadelphia. It was part of the Pennsylvania Hospital. The basement of the hospital provided beds with shackles attached to the wall to house a small number of the mentally ill. In Massachusetts the first facility helped give the future ones their name. In 1818 McLean Hospital opened. It was first called the 'Asylum for the Insane' and was a division of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The hospital was renamed McLean Asylum for the Insane in 1825. Most of the similar hospitals in the future would be often referred to as 'insane asylums' or 'mental hospitals' even if it wasn't directly in their name.

    The Medfield Insane Asylum became the third such facility in Massachusetts when work began on it in early 1891. The initial plans were to have 25 buildings, 18 of them housing 1,000 patients, in a self-contained cottage style campus. It was to be the first asylum strictly for the long-term care of high-need chronic patients. The money appropriated for the project, $500,000 ($14.3 million in 2020), was not seen to be enough. The Massachusetts State Inspector feared the buildings would be built on the cheap and could be fire traps. In February 1893 the asylum in Dover, New Hampshire burned to the ground killing 44 of 48 patients which only exacerbated fears. The project was temporarily put on hold to further iron out the plans. 

The Chapel in 2011 vs. 1903 (Asylum Postcards.com)

    The buildings of the Medfield asylum were of red brick with walls 12-inches thick. In addition to the dormitories for the patients there was an administration building, laundry, kitchen, dining room, and more making the 425-acre property more like a small village than a mental hospital. After a long legal wrangling over the trustees of the property and securing that the buildings would indeed be safe for the patients the Medfield Insane Asylum opened in May 1896. There were initially about 600 patients at the asylum including 178 immediately transferred there from the Danvers asylum upon Medfield's grand opening. In the beginning Medfield would be used to help ease the overcrowding in other nearby facilities.

    By the time the property had its first name change to the Medfield State Asylum in 1905 there were a total of 1,554 patients living there. The staff of the asylum initially lived on the property as well, often sleeping in the attics of the buildings which housed patients. In 1914 the property underwent a second name change to the Medfield State Hospital. The property's Superintendent Edward French said at the time that a name change was necessary as any intelligent patient there might feel hopeless living in an asylum. Name changes aside there was a problem that needed correction and that was lack of restraints on some violent patients. In 1912 alone several nurses on staff were injured via attacks from violent patients not properly restrained.

Vines engulfing one of the former dormitories. 

    Not all of the people living at the Medfield hospital were dangerous though. In fact many would only be there for a respite and be released and even find jobs in the private sector. Despite that positive news the small town of Medfield was continuously at odds with the facility. A suspicious fire that burned the laundry building in June 1924 got the town's attention as though the fire was controlled it theoretically could have put the town in danger.

    Patient on staff crime, vice versa, and patient on patient incidents were frequent. The first incident to make the news was the September 1916 beating death of patient Camillo Strazullo by attendant Wesley Linton. Linton would be found guilty and spend 3 years in prison in Dedham. As incidents increased over the rest of the decade staff encouraged swift prosecution for violence against patients. At the end of the 1910's the property expanded to a total of 609 acres of land abutting the Charles River. On the west end of the property a cemetery was built to accommodate the remains of the many inmates who died during the 1918 Flu Pandemic. That cemetery still exists today. Eventually the campus swelled to 58 buildings including a chapel.

    The incidents of violence inside the Medfield State Hospital were exacerbated during the 1930's and 1940's when the facility's population was at its highest. It became a problem of overcrowding as the number of patients topped 2,300. Incidents of murder increased as did the escaping of patients. This included 3 men stealing a car in November 1935 and making it to Dedham before being apprehended. Otherwise it became routine for patients to wander off and into town as the hospital was basically an open campus with no outer walls and no guards.

    Shock therapy came into use in 1938 initially killing 2 test patients. World War II strained the staffing at the hospital leading to the more competent patients helping out to care for the less inclined people and the property itself. Major changes for the Medfield State Hospital began in the 1950's.

    The reintroduction of lithium as a psychiatric medication in 1949 led to a revolution in terms of medications and treatments of those suffering from mental illness. Lithium, used for mania, got the ball rolling but it was chlorpromazine (brand name thorazine) which came along in 1949 that changed the game. It was popularized in the early 1950's. Other new drugs like imipramine, one of the first antidepressants, came along shortly thereafter. These medications then allowed more patients living at asylums to be sent home. Those that did stay in the facilities were far calmer and the campus at Medfield began to resemble a college rather than a busy subway station.

    Medfield garnered praise for its rehabilitation program under the leadership of Dr. Harold Lee during the later 50's and early 60's. Change continued as Congress in the early 60's passed a law stating that asylum patients needed to be kept under as little restraint as possible. Changes in policies coupled with more patients being allowed to lead relatively normal lives outside of the walls of an asylum eventually led to the closure of some such facilities.

    During the 1970's some asylums began seeing a little use as correctional facilities. Some feared Medfield might follow suit. However it was a far worse fate that began being discussed. The choice was being bandied about of either closing Medfield or the Westborough hospital. The population dropped at Medfield and some of the buildings on the campus closed. Calls for reform of policies at Medfield had begun in 1966 and came to a head in 1984 from the Massachusetts Mental Health Department. The population continued dropping until it was at 200 in 1989. It was at this point the property finally became fenced in. A major reason was due to an influx of patients from the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to Medfield which worried the town's residents.

    During the 1990's the campus was deteriorating. The property's wells were taken out of service and the town supplied it with water. Also mothballs were used in some of the buildings to try to stem the deterioration. The writing was on the wall though. Slowly parcels of land were donated to the state for conservation. Talks of closing Medfield State Hospital had been ongoing for years, long before word officially came down in 2002. April 13, 2003 saw the hospital close and the remaining patients transferred to Westborough. For the first time in 107 years the campus and its red brick buildings stood silent.

Remember us, for we too have lived, loved, and laughed.  

    The former Medfield State Hospital sat in limbo for 11 years though it was used for scenes in the 2009 movie The Box and the 2010 movie Shutter Island. The town officially bought it in December 2014. A total of 127 acres was purchased for $3.1 million. As of March 2020 plans were being brought forward as to how to repurpose the former hospital property.

    Though it might end up as subsidized housing, retail space, or something else in the not too distant future, currently it is possible to walk the grounds among the creepy yet beautiful old buildings of Medfield State Hospital. There have been numerous accounts of paranormal activity on the grounds and the property as a whole lends itself to something out of a horror movie. While it is still standing it is recommended to take a walk on the grounds. It can be at midday with your dog to minimize the eeriness but those who love the Halloween season need to see this spot with their own eyes.

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Coming November 5, 2020 the debut episode of the In My Footsteps Podcast wherever you get your podcasts!  

View my previous blog posts: 

In Their Footsteps: The Smuttynose Island Ax Murders

In My Footsteps: The Scariest Places I've Been

Photo Prints available here: Smug Mug.com

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In My Footsteps: The Scariest Places I've Ever Been

 

    Halloween season is upon us. It is the time of the year to scare and be scared. Scary movies, haunted house attractions, ghost stories, these and more are all traditions of October. I have been sharing some terrifying true crime stories this month and thought I'd go one better. I wanted to share my picks for the creepiest places I have been myself. Most of these are able to be visited even now, though it's not recommended after dark.

North Truro Air Force Base, Old Dewline Rd., Truro

    Okay so I'll start with one you likely don't want to try to go into because it's off limits. Several years ago I ventured inside the long abandoned North Truro Air Force Base. Located a stone's throw from Highland Lighthouse the base was in operation from 1951-1985 and encompasses 110 acres of land abutting the high cliffs of Truro. It has been a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore since 1994 and has been renamed the Highlands Center. However despite the improvements to infrastructure and money spent on demolishing some buildings the area remains dotted with decaying and overgrown structures. The only thing creepier than the outside is the inside.

Inside the North Truro AFB

    This is NOT recommended. As I said before several years ago while taking some photos at the deserted former base I wandered around and saw a body-sized hole in a door and gathered the guts enough to slip inside. It was lit only by light coming in through cracks between boarded up windows. Machinery and furniture remained but was badly decayed and dirty. Dark hallways and staircases coupled with miscellaneous creaks and echoes cut my time in there short.

Pine Grove Cemetery, Old County Rd., Truro

The infamous Pine Grove Cemetery crypt.

    Graves and cemeteries are a staple of spooky Halloween outings. Cape Cod has its share of creepy cemeteries with graves dating back to the 17th century. Perhaps no proper cemetery is creepier than the Pine Grove Cemetery in Truro. More than just being in the middle of nowhere this cemetery is creepy for the true crime story that happened within its borders. In 1969 Tony Costa murdered and mutilated four women. At least one of the victims was mutilated in a small brick crypt near the back corner of the cemetery. Three of the bodies were found in an area near the cemetery. It makes for a scary hike to wander the old fire roads trying to imagine where Costa buried the victims.

The Grave of Thomas Ridley, Truro

    There are a pair of gravesites not connected to a cemetery but that are connected to each other through the terrible disease known as smallpox. The solo grave of Thomas Ridley, located more than a half-mile deep in the woods behind Montano's Restaurant in Truro, is one of the hardest spots to find on Cape Cod. Ridley died of smallpox in 1776 and was buried far removed from the rest of the village for fear of exposure to the deadly illness. Few have laid eyes on his simple solitary gravestone in its more than 240 years of residency in the Truro woods.

Provincetown Smallpox Cemetery

Gravestone #5 at the hidden smallpox cemetery.

    In Provincetown only a few miles down Rt. 6 from Montano's is another hidden smallpox cemetery. Though closer to the main road it is no less difficult to find. Thickly overgrown brush hides the route to a series of foot-tall graves marked only by numbers. Though they lay in a line in a relative clearing it is the getting there that is the hardest. These graves are remnants of a smallpox treatment facility. It was first constructed in 1848. It was called a pestilence house, or Pest House, and the tiny 8x10 building was used to keep those ill from the rest of the town. Today all that remains is a hole in the ground where the building stood until 1873, and the solemn graves of fourteen people who died of smallpox at the Pest House. Of the fourteen only four remain in good condition after more than 140 years in the elements.

West Barnstable Brick Factory, Rt. 6A, West Barnstable

Part of the old West Barnstable Brick Factory.

    A spot very much out of the way is the former West Barnstable Brick Factory site. Just off of the railroad tracks in West Barnstable a century ago this was a thriving business creating popular bricks from the clay deposits underground. In the 1920's at its peak the factory was making 100,000 bricks per day and upwards of 30 million per year. In 1932 a test hole was dug into the clay to estimate how many years of brick making remained. Sadly the hole created an artesian well which flooded the clay pits and sent the company out of business.

    Today bits and pieces of the factory remain secluded behind thick brush and thorns. The artesian well remains in the area as do thousands of broken bricks. Though not creepy in the same way as a cemetery is the West Barnstable Brick Factory remains are a stoic and sad reminder of a once thriving industry and the one fatal mistake that ended it. Be aware for those trying to find this, it is buried so deep behind thorns and brush and there is no real pathway to get to it. Be prepared to bushwhack and possibly ruin your clothes. I did both when I visited.

Medfield State Hospital, 28 Hospital Rd., Medfield, Ma.

On the grounds of Medfield State Hospital

    Creepier than a cemetery might be an abandoned mental institution. The Medfield State Hospital is easily one of the creepiest places I've been. At its peak it had 58 buildings on its nearly 900 acre campus. Open from 1896-2003 it held as many as 2,300 patients at its peak. During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 the staff created their own cemetery which still exists. Problems arose as it became commonplace for patients to simply leave the grounds and roam into town. The buildings began to deteriorate even before its closing in 2003.

    In the years since the buildings remained as a reminder of what once was. They stand as an abandoned neighborhood of sorts, each building blood red in color with white paint of the window shutters running alongside making it appear that the windows are crying.  The first time I visited I remember there being almost no sound, no wind, no animals, only a single beige sedan slowly driving the property. Straight out of a nightmare.  The second time I heard what sounded like a drill or electric saw inside the old vocational rehab building. I asked the town if anyone was working inside there on that day but got no reply.

    In 2014 the Town of Medfield bought the property and have been working on repurposing it as a piece of living history. It is possible to walk the grounds and experience a truly eerie sight, try it earlier or later in the day for maximum effect.  

Lizzie Borden House, 230 2nd St., Fall River, Ma.

An exact replica of the sofa where Andrew Borden was murdered. 

    Perhaps the creepiest spot in Massachusetts is the site of its most infamous crime. The Lizzie Borden House in Fall River is a must-see. To sum it up Lizzie Borden was arrested in 1892 for the ax murders of her father Andrew Borden and stepmother Abby, although she was acquitted in 1893. The brutality of the murders shocked the nation. Lizzie ended up spending her remaining years in Fall River despite being ostracized by the community.

    The house doubles as a museum attraction and a Bed & Breakfast. There are regularly scheduled tours of the home complete with gruesome photos of the crime scene including the bodies. I have taken the tour and standing in the spots where Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death is truly creepy. However I can only imagine spending the night in the home. Laying awake at night wondering if the sound you heard was the spirit of Andrew or Abby wandering the halls. Or having to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and walking around in the dark in the home. I would definitely recommend the tour and if you're feeling daring spending a night there.

Gettysburg Battlefield, 1195 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg, Pa.

The battlefield at Gettysburg

    The final spot I am including is far outside of New England yet needs to be experienced at least once. One of the most haunted spots in all of America, if not the world, is the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. One can either drive the route to the battlefield from the museum or you can walk. I chose to walk the half-mile trail through the woods to get to the actual battlefield. It is creepy as you walk out and see the large black and white photo posters of soldiers from the Afghanistan War hanging from the trees.

    The battlefield itself has been home to untold numbers of paranormal activity. More than 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing in total on both sides of the Civil War battle. With so many lives ended suddenly in one area it is natural that the field is full of spirits. The battlefield is decorated with many monuments and an overwhelming feeling of sadness thinking of the loss of life there. In order to truly get the creepy experience at Gettysburg stay until after dark and see if any apparitions appear or sounds fill the air. I stayed until a little after dark visiting the neighboring Gettysburg cemetery and then had to make the rather unsettling walk back a half-mile to the museum parking lot. All the while walking through the woods I had to remind myself it was only deer I heard roaming around in the brush.

    These are my favorite scary places I've been. Are there others on the Cape or New England that I missed? Have a happy and spooky Halloween!

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My first eBook in 10 years, In Their Footsteps, featuring the interesting stories of Cape Cod's history, is on sale at Amazon.com. 

View my previous blog posts: 

In Their Footsteps: The Smuttynose Island Ax Murders

In Their Footsteps: New England History - Bathsheba Spooner's 18th Century Murder for Hire

Photo Prints available here: Smug Mug.com

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In My Footsteps: Medfield State Hospital

            With 130 articles written during my travels I have seen a lot of amazing places.  However, as can be the case, with showcasing a town in an article some of the places can be glossed over to make sure everything fits.  I have decided to start a series of articles each showcasing one specific place per article.  There are so many that have their own story and my experiences there deserve more than just a paragraph.  Since it is the Halloween season, or was, I have decided to begin with the scariest place I have visited: Medfield State Hospital.

            Medfield State Hospital is an historic spot.  It was a mental hospital built on Hospital Rd. in Medfield, Massachusetts in 1892.  At its peak there were fifty-eight buildings located on the grounds and could house 2,200 patients.  It was a self-sufficient property, raising its own livestock and produce while also producing its own heat and power.  The property was closed in April 2003 due to a decline in patients.  The grounds have been used for films such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Shutter Island.

            The grounds are still open for walking as of November 2012.  When I visited I had high expectations from photos about the experience and I was not disappointed.  I pulled up and parked in a dirt area directly across the street from the imposing collection of buildings.  Sure, I had read the grounds were open but I did not see any other vehicles.  There was a white trailer located at the entrance to the grounds so I approached and a security guard stepped out.  He told me the grounds were open to be walked but there was to be no photography.  I clutched my tiny digital camera tightly in my pocket and moved on past.

            The road curves slightly and soon I was out of sight of the trailer and pulled my camera out.  I was immediately fascinated by the boarded up brick buildings.  The blood red plywood over the windows made the stoic buildings more eerie.  The sunny day added haunting shadows to these buildings.  I had the grounds all to myself and did my best to soak in this unique atmosphere.

            The deeper I got into Medfield State Hospital I began to notice something.  The silence.  It was a creepy calm.  There were no birds, no squirrels running around, nothing.  When I had parked my car there was the normal buzz of nature but not on the grounds.  It felt fitting.  The silence would eventually be broken by the howls of the wind passing through cracked windows.  The first such howl sent a chill down my spine.  It was thrilling.

            So much of my time was like something out of a suspense-filled horror movie.  I felt like I was on camera awaiting a monster or killer.  Then my fears were realized.  Okay, not really, but as I was at the furthest end of the Medfield State Hospital grounds I noticed a beige sedan slowly creeping its way up one of the roads.  There was a single man driving and scoping things out.  A perfect horror movie setup, right?  I tucked my camera in my pocket as he slowly passed.

            On the eastern edge of the grounds is a white water tower which gave me a dream vibe, like it was something you would have seen in a dream sequence of A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Perhaps the creepiest part of these buildings was the ‘crying’ windows.  The window frames were painted white and the years of weather had caused the white paint to run some down the bricks looking like ‘tears.’  In a place where mental patients once roamed it again seemed fitting.

            All of these creepy experiences are not meant to drive potential visitors away.  On the contrary, I believe that these things make it a more desirable place to see.  Some of the buildings were in great condition such as the main hospital building and the church.  Other buildings were damaged and had the red ‘X’ on the façade indicating they were most likely meant for demolition.  With roads and sidewalks there were times it felt like I was walking through a haunted ghost town; I could almost hear the sounds of the former patients on the wind.  To make the creepy journey complete if you’d like there is a Medfield State Hospital cemetery a few hundred yards west of the ground where 841 patients were buried between 1918-1988.  I did not venture that far.

            Easily the most eerie spot I have visited, Medfield State Hospital is a must see for horror fans.  I heard the howling winds, saw the creepy man slowly driving the grounds in his car, and heard the silence from the birds and squirrels.  Who knows what experiences you will have when you go?  Perhaps you should bring your running shoes though.  Have fun and happy traveling!

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Medfield State Hospital: 9 Hospital Rd., Medfield, Mass. GPS (42.207954,-71.335561)

            From I-95 N take Exit 9 for Rt. 1. Take 1^st left onto Rt. 27, follow it 8.6 miles. Turn right onto Hospital Rd., hospital grounds will be on the left.

Links: Medfield Patch.com - Medfield State Hospital

The hospital grounds looked like an abandoned ghost town.

Some buildings were in relatively good condition.

This look like a something dream sequence from A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The 'crying' windows.

The creepy church.

           

           

In My Footsteps: Trip 117: Medfield, Massachusetts

In My Footsteps

Christopher Setterlund

Trip 117:  Medfield, Massachusetts

March 30, 2011

            Never had I been so excited and so scared to visit a place as I was when I visited Medfield.  No, there is nothing scary about Medfield itself, it is a beautiful town about twenty-five miles southwest of Boston.  It was getting to step foot on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital that made this trip different from any I had taken before.

Peak House

            Originally part of Dedham, the town of Medfield was particularly ravaged during King Philip’s War during 1675.  Half of the town was burned to the ground by the Native Americans.  The first spot I visited, the Peak House, was burned to the ground and rebuilt shortly thereafter.  Rebuilt in 1680 the small home on Main Street has a very high pitched steep roof which makes it look different than the average house.  It is said that the house has the steepest roof on record for a 17^th century house in Massachusetts.

            Taking a break from the historic homes of Medfield I ventured to a secluded hiking area called the Noon Hill Reservation.  I parked on the similarly named Noonhill Road and hiked the trail that led to the summit of Noon Hill.  The reservation itself is 204 acres which would take a lot of time to see, but the trail up to the summit of the 370-foot Noon Hill will give you a great idea of what the area is all about.  There are some clearing areas at the top which allow you to see neighboring Walpole, Norfolk, and even Great Blue Hill.  It is definitely a worthwhile hike.

Dwight-Derby House

            Returning to the historic areas of Medfield I went to check out the Dwight-Derby House on Frairy Street.  Built in 1651 the house is one of the ten oldest homes in America.  As if that wasn’t enough if you simply turn around there is an amazing scene.  Sitting just on the other side of Meetinghouse Pond is the First Unitarian Church built in 1789.  When the weather is right there is a near perfect reflection of the church in the pond’s peaceful waters.  The weather was right on this day which is why I am mentioning it.

            Despite all of the other wonderful spots to check out in Medfield there was one that I was excited to see well before my arrival and that was the abandoned Medfield State Hospital on Hospital Road.  Built in 1892 the hospital was for the clinically insane, a mental hospital.  At its peak there were fifty-eight buildings on 900 acres housing a maximum of 2,200 patients.

Part of the 'neighborhood' of buildings at Medfield State Hospital.

            The property was closed down in 2003 but recently reopened to the public; it has even been used for movies like Shutter Island.  I knew upon arrival that this was going to be different than almost any place I had seen thus far and it was.  I parked in an abandoned field across the street and approached the guard shack.  The guard let me in and I was soon on my way into another world.

            This ‘hospital’ was more like an abandoned neighborhood, there were so many buildings, red brick with red plywood over most of the windows.  The blood red color only made the long walk from the guard shack to the neighborhood of abandoned buildings more eerie.  There were hardly any sounds, no birds, no animals foraging around, really creepy.  I also noticed signs with red ‘X’s’ on some and single slashes on others.  I can only assume that this is marking which buildings are to be torn down and which are to remain standing.

The creepy 'crying' windows at Medfield State Hospital.

            It was easy for me to get lost in thinking of what the place was like when it was active having seen so many clichéd horror movies dealing with mental hospitals.  It was only made creepier by the other security guard slowly patrolling around the grounds in his car.  There were things about the Medfield State Hospital that were odd and added to the experience.  Once such thing was the trails of white paint running underneath many windows of the buildings, it made it seem like the windows were crying which was really unsettling. 

            It may be a little unnerving to walk the grounds of the Medfield State Hospital but I would recommend it to anybody who likes a little bit of terror with their travels.  If not there are plenty of other awesome places to check out like Noon Hill and the historic Peak and Dwight-Derby Houses.  Medfield was a great spot for me and I think it has something for everybody’s tastes.  Have fun and happy traveling!

            For more In My Footsteps items follow my Twitter Feed, view more photos at the In My Footsteps fan page on Facebook, or visit my homepage at ChristopherSetterlund.com.   Thanks for reading!  

           

Directions:  Noon Hill Reservation:  From Rt. 3 take exit 20A to merge onto I-93 S, continue onto Rt. 1 S, continue onto I-95 N.  Take exit 16B for Rt. 109 W., follow 7.6 mi., turn left onto South St., turn left onto Rt. 27 S., take 1^st right onto South St., take 3^rd right onto Noonhill Rd., parking area is on the left.

            Medfield State Hospital:  From Rt. 3 take exit 20A to merge onto I-93 S, continue onto Rt. 1 S, continue onto I-95 N.  Take exit 16B for Rt. 109 W., follow 7.7 mi., turn right onto North St., take a slight left onto Harding St., slight left onto Hospital Rd.  Main entrance to hospital grounds is .7 mi. up on right.  I parked across the street when I visited.

References:  Medfield, Ma. - Official Town Site

            Medfield Historical Society.org

            Rise and Fall of the Medfield State Hospital - Medfield.Patch.com - 03/04/11