Bridgewater State Hospital (Mass.)

The State Asylum for Insane Criminals was established in Massachusetts in 1895 at the State Workhouse in Bridgewater. Under the workhouse's successor, the State Farm (from 1887), the asylum was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital in 1909. In 1919 the State Farm, including the State Hospital, was transferred from the State Board of Charity to the Massachusetts Bureau of Prisons (later Dept. of Correction), although as of 1923 the Dept. of Mental Diseases (later Dept. of Mental Health) retained the power to commit non-criminal insane to the institution. The State Farm was reorganized in 1955 as Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater. The State Hospital remained as a unit within the larger entity until 1987, when it was separated with its own superintendent.

In order to relieve crowded conditions at the state lunatic hospitals, St 1886, c 219 authorized the erection of a building at the State Workhouse at Bridgewater to house 125 chronic insane men of the pauper and harmless class, to be transferred from state almshouses and lunatic hospitals. The State Board of Lunacy and Charity, in charge of the State Workhouse per St 1886, 101, s 5, voted on September 4, 1886 to transfer fifty such men, and the asylum building was opened in 1887. Resolves 1888, c 89 added a building for the active violent insane, as well as an addition to the hospital for the medical treatment of the sick insane. Also admitted were aged or physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (St 1890, c 180; St 1915, c 184). St 1894, c 251 limited insane admissions for a time to inmates of correctional institutions. Per St 1895, c 390, the departments for the care and maintenance of insane men became the State Asylum for Insane Criminals. The asylum was ultimately renamed Bridgewater State Hospital per St 1909, c 504, s 98. Under provisions of St 1909, c 504; St 1910, c 345; and St 1911, c 604, insane prisoners elsewhere continued to be removed to Bridgewater State Hospital.

St 1887, c 264 had renamed the State Workhouse (including its alms department) as the State Farm, in deference to the insane male paupers recently admitted. With the division of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity per St 1898, c 433, the State Farm continued under the State Board of Charity, which was responsible for the state poor, while the newly-created State Board of Insanity was given general supervision of all state asylums and hospitals for the insane. Meantime, the State Farm continued under the joint board of trustees that also oversaw successors to the (Tewksbury) State Almshouse, namely, the (Tewksbury) State Hospital (1900) and the State Infirmary (1909). St 1919, c 199 transferred management of the State Farm (and with it Bridgewater State Hospital) from the State Board of Charity to the Massachusetts Bureau of Prisons (replaced per St 1919, c 350, s 86 by the Dept. of Correction). Succeeding the State Board of Insanity, the Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (1916) and the Dept. of Mental Diseases (1919) had supervision of commitment and discharge of insane inmates not under sentence, with St 1923, c 467 specifying that the Bridgewater State Hospital would remain under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Correction and the superintendent of the State Farm.

St 1955, c 770 reorganized the state correctional system, renaming the State Farm as Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater, including Bridgewater State Hospital. In 1987, Bridgewater State Hospital separated from MCI-Bridgewater, being placed under its own superintendent.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to agencies described above can be found by searching the following access points for the time period stated: 1895-1909--Massachusetts. State Asylum for Insane Criminals (Bridgewater, Mass.); 1909-present--Bridgewater State Hospital (Mass.)