Boston State Hospital

The Boston Lunatic Hospital was established as a municipal agency in 1839; it was renamed Boston Insane Hospital in 1897. It was made a Massachusetts state agency under the name Boston State Hospital in 1908 and closed in 1981.

From 1839 until 1981, Boston State Hospital was responsible for providing residential care and treatment for mentally ill persons in the Boston metropolitan area currently known by the Massachusetts Dept. of Mental Health as departmental Region IV. In addition the hospital served as a center for research into causes and treatments for mental illness and as a training center for psychiatric health care professionals.

Boston State Hospital was originally established as Boston Lunatic Hospital by St 1839, c 131, which authorized the Boston City Council to erect and maintain a hospital "for the reception of insane persons not furiosly mad." It was the second such public institution for the care of mentally ill in Massachusetts and the first municipally supported institution in the state, operating under the general supervision of council members until 1857, when a Board of Inspectors of Public Institutions was established to manage all city institutions. Under St 1897, c 451 it was renamed Boston Insane Hospital and placed under an Insane Hospital Dept. consisting of seven trustees (see also St 1897, c 395)

The hospital remained under municipal control even when the state assumed responsibility for all insane in 1904 (per St 1900, c 451) and did not relinquish its control until 1908, when it sold the hospital's property and facilities to the state for $1,000,000. At that time its name was changed to Boston State Hospital and a board of trustees was appointed by the state to oversee the institution under the general supervision of the State Board of Insanity (St 1908, c 613) and succeeding state mental health agencies.

Initially the patient population consisted of persons committed by the municipal court judge for the City of Boston, insane persons removed from the house of correction and house of industry, and insane persons removed from the Worcester Lunatic Hospital to Boston (per RS 1836, c 48, ss 14-15). The inpatient population included both chronic and acute cases. However, despite the hospital's expansion over the years, in 1908 less than fifteen percent of the mentally ill in the Boston metropolitan area were being cared for there; the remainder had to be sent to other state facilities.

In 1912, under the authority of St 1909, c 470, Boston State Hospital founded a Psychopathic Dept., the first of its kind in the country, to diagnose and treat acute cases of emotional disturbance through the observation of patients and to conduct research and develop modern methods of treatment. Per St 1920, c 537, the department became the Boston Psychopathic Hospital (per St 1956, c 63, the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, which see)

During the 1960s, as a result of increased emphasis on alternative methods of treatment and the trend towards deinstitutionalization and community based mental health care, the inpatient population decreased significantly. Following extensive community mental health center construction in the Boston area, Boston State Hospital was closed in 1981, with its services being reconsolidated into other centers, units, and hospitals.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agencies described above can be found by searching the following access points for the time period stated: 1839-1897--Boston Lunatic Hospital; 1897-1908--Boston Insane Hospital; 1908-1981--Boston State Hospital.