Massachusetts. State Hospital (Tewksbury, Mass.)

St 1852, c 275 authorized the building of three state almshouses for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth as certified by overseers of the poor or other local authorities, each with a superintendent and three inspectors who could bind out minors as apprentices. St 1853, c 352 appropriated funds for almshouses in Bridgewater, Monson, and Tewksbury, which opened in 1854. St 1855, c 366 provided for recording by the almshouse superintendent of birth and deaths and the making of annual returns to the state secretary. St 1856, c 171 placed local certification procedures for admission under jurisdiction of the Board of Alien Commissioners. St 1856, c 446, s 4 held municipalities liable for expenses for paupers found to have settlement. St 1858, c 168 authorized superintendents to contract out and discharge paupers who would work; those who refused forfeited state support. St 1859, c 255 authorized the Board of Alien Commissioners to transfer paupers between state almshouses and lunatic hospitals or to discharge and send them out of state. St 1854, c 437 had banned admission of the dangerously insane; St 1865, c 162 based admission of cases of smallpox or other dangerous disease solely on determination of state authority (see below)

With the discontinuation of the almshouses at Bridgewater and Monson (St 1872, c 45), Tewksbury received their adult inmates and sent its children to Monson, where the State Primary School (founded 1866) continued, while some of its adult inmates went to Bridgewater, now site of the the State Workhouse (later State Farm)

Since 1863 the state almshouses had been under the jurisdiction of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), which carried on the related functions of the Board of Alien Commissioners. With the establishment of the successor State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), Tewksbury's board of inspectors and an advisory board of women thereto were replaced with a Board of Trustees of the State Almshouse, which elected its superintendent while reporting to the state board. St 1884, c 297 combined the board with that of the State Workhouse to form the Board of Trustees of the State Almshouse and State Workhouse; the board was placed under the State Board of Lunacy and Charity per St 1886, c 101, and under the Board of State Charity per St 1898, c 433.

Pursuant to Resolves 1866, c 40; 1871 c 11 and c 77, a hospital and asylum for the "harmless and incurable insane" had been built at the Tewksbury almshouse, and St 1876, c 179 provided for the appointment of a resident physician to direct them. Eventually the almshouses's function was specialized to the extent that St 1900, c 333 renamed it the State Hospital; St 1909, c 504, s 98 renamed it the State Infirmary. St 1919, c 304 extended admission to all with incurable disease (except mental defect or leprosy) with or without settlement, including those who could pay their own expenses, on certificate of a local board of health. St 1919, c 350, s 87 renamed its trustees (by now the Board of Trustees of the State Infirmary and State Farm) the Board of Trustees of the State Infirmary and placed it under the Dept. of Public Welfare.

Per St 1939, c 272 the State Infirmary was renamed Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary, and per St 1958, c 613 (implemented 1959), Tewksbury Hospital. Placed under the Dept. of Public Health, it admitted indigents, now on certificate of the department, a municipal board of health, the Dept. of Public Welfare, or, until 1974 (St 1974, c 260, s 20), a municipal board of public welfare. General admission was for those with any disease except mental defect or insanity; St 1964, c 545 added an outright ban on those with smallpox or other disease dangerous to the public health; St 1975, c 752, s 6 removed all exceptions to admission. The hospital's functions are currently described in MGLA c 122.

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agencies described above can be found by searching the following access points for the time period stated: 1854-1900--Massachusetts. State Almshouse (Tewksbury, Mass.); 1900-1909--Massachusetts. State Hospital (Tewksbury, Mass.); 1909-1939--Massachusetts. State Infirmary (Tewksbury, Mass.); 1939-1958--Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary (Mass.); 1959-present--Tewksbury Hospital (Mass.)

From the description of Agency history record. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80931948