Westborough State Hospital

Westborough State Hospital was a psychiatric institution that stretched across about 600 acres between Lyman Street and Chauncy Lake, containing numerous treatment and patient care buildings. The complex combined medical infrastructure with residential areas and farm buildings, creating a self-sustaining facility.

The institution was founded in 1884 as Westborough Insane Hospital and grew out of a state reform school for boys. It became New England's first homeopathic mental health facility, establishing a distinctive treatment approach in the region.

The grounds served as a workplace for Solomon Carter Fuller, an African-American psychiatrist who conducted groundbreaking research on Alzheimer's disease in the early 1900s. His work here contributed significantly to understanding brain changes and shaped psychiatric science of his era.

The site exists today as a historical grounds with no surviving buildings, as all structures were demolished in 2019. Visitors can walk the former property to understand the spatial layout and scale of the former institution.

Patients actively contributed to maintaining the complex by making clothes, growing food, and performing maintenance work. These organized work programs formed a central part of daily operations and the facility's self-sufficiency strategy.

Location: Massachusetts

GPS coordinates: 42.30111,-71.61028

Latest update: December 8, 2025 19:51