Scope and Content: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. Public health hospital client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, c 70. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 1999
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Resolves 1846, c 117 appointed Commissioners on Idiocy to inquire on: the condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them. The commission’s report, written by Samuel G. Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, led to the establishment by Resolves 1848, c 65 of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, located at the Perkins Institution. The school was incorporated as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (St 1850, c 150), located near Perkins in South Boston, with Howe serving as president until his death in 1876. It was renamed the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by St 1883, c 239, reflecting the establishment of a separate asylum department for those beyond school age or not capable of being helped by the school’s instruction. Funds for the construction of a new facility in Waltham were provided by Resolves 1888, c 82, and occupation of the new site began in 1890, with the South Boston facility closing in 1892. St 1925, c 293 renamed the institution the Walter E. Fernald State School, in honor of the superintendent of the school, 1887-1924. A 2003 gubernatorial initiative to close the Fernald School (known as the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center since 1993) by 2007 was still in litigation as of 2013.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 until 1872.  Admission was contingent on receipt of a certifying statement from local authorities as to lack of settlement (St 1852, c 275, s 5).  Permits consisting of such statements document legal admission of persons to the institution.
Arrangement: Arranged  chronologically
Notes: Formerly kept as separate series: Paupers certificates from overseers of the poor
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Tewksbury opened in 1854.  It was renamed successively the State Hospital (1900), the State Infirmary (1909), Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary (1939), and Tewksbury Hospital (1959)
Arrangement: Arranged by registration no./chronologically by admission date
Restrictions: Public health hospital/clinic client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, s 70. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Spine title varies: State Almshouse permits; State Hospital permits; State Infirmary permits
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Scope and Content: Lakeville State Sanatorium opened in 1910.  It was renamed Lakeville Hospital in 1963, which closed in 1992.
Arrangement: Arranged by case no./chronologically by date of admission
Restrictions: Public health hospital/clinic client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, s 70. For conditions of access consult repository         
Notes: Transferred to Archives, June 1992. Volume [1]: 1910-1915.  Volume [2]: 1915-1924, with initial entries copied from previous volume.  Volume [3]: 1924-1932 (with index); called [volumes] 1. Volume [4]: 1932-1939; called [volumes] 2. Later entries disbound: parallel records with differing data, Dec. 1974-June 1976.  Anterior poliomyelitis patient entries, 1937-ca. 1960, in red.  Additional entries in red, 1971-1976
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  Series was created to administer and record their admission to the institution.
Arrangement: Arranged within each Volume by almshouse no./chronologically by admission date
Notes: Reel GSU 454: volumes 1.  Reel GSU 455: volumes 2-3; Index volumes 1-4, A-U.  Reel GSU 456: Index volumes 4, U-Z.
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Scope and Content: The State Primary School, opened at the State Almshouse at Monson in 1866 and continuing after the almshouse’s closing in 1872 until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Series was created to administer and record their admission to the institution.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Full admission (2) Support or temporary custody; Arranged within each Volume by school no./chronologically by admission date
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Scope and Content: Programs and institutions for the mentally ill and retarded of Massachusetts were among the responsibilities successively of the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240), State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (St 1879, c 291), and State Board of Lunacy and Charity (St 1886, c 101).  They were then the sole responsibility successively of the State Board of Insanity (St 1898, c 433), Massachusetts Commission on Mental Diseases (St 1916, c 285), Dept. of Mental Diseases (St 1919, c 350, ss 79-81), and Dept. of Mental Health (St 1938, c 486)
Arrangement: In two subseries; Arranged within each subseries by institution, thereunder alphabetically by patient
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: In 1955 the Massachusetts correctional system was reorganized, so that the State Farm at Bridgewater became the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Bridgewater, commonly called MCI Bridgewater. With this change, Bridgewater’s admittance of misdemeanor convicts (since 1866), state charges (i.e., almshouse paupers, since 1872), and aged or infirm state prisoners (since 1890) was terminated, leaving the prison population (i.e., aside from Bridgewater State Hospital) almost entirely those with alcohol or drug-related convictions. In 1958, a specialized unit serving the whole state corrections system, the Massachusetts Treatment Center of the Sexually Dangerous, was added.  The population of MCI Bridgewater changed again with St 1971 c 1076, which abolished the crime of public intoxication, limiting drug and alcohol admissions to civil commitments, voluntary or otherwise; also abolished was the then-controversial unit for defective delinquents (since 1922). The Bridgewater State Hospital serving the insane was placed under separate administration in 1987, the Old Colony Correctional Center opened in 1987, and in 1990 the MCI addiction center was placed under the Southeastern Correctional Center, which had opened in 1976. Since by 1990 the Treatment Center of the Sexually Dangerous had also become a separate unit, at that point the existence of MCI Bridgewater as an administrative entity ended. After SECC’s closing in 2002, addiction treatment was provided at the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center. A Massachusetts Boot Camp for youthful offenders was located at Bridgewater from 1992 until after 2000.
Notes: Box 1: 1956, 1959-1961. Box 2: 1962-1966, 1968. Box 3: 1969-1972. Box 4: 1973-1975, 1978, 1980-1981. Box 5: 1982-1983, 1986-1988
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Scope and Content: Bridgewater, Mass., was the site successively of a State Almshouse (1854-1872) for so-called willing and needlessly dependent paupers, and the State Workhouse (1866-1887), for paupers convicted of misdemeanors as well as paupers generally (from 1872), and incorrigible juveniles (1869-1948). The State Workhouse was renamed the State Farm (1887-1955), which also included a State Farm Hospital for the medical needs of all inmates, as well as locals and poor admitted solely for medical treatment. The change in name was in deference to the admission of insane male paupers (1886), although it was  followed by the admission of aged and physically or mentally infirm inmates of the State Prison (1890). Insane admissions were then limited for a time to criminals (1894), forming a division called the State Asylum for Insane Criminals (1895), which was renamed Bridgewater State Hospital (1909). Units at Bridgewater were later added for female prisoners (1909-1930), so-called defective delinquents (males from 1922, females 1926-1954)–mentally impaired inmates requiring segregation from standard inmate or institutionalized populations–and for drug and alcohol addicts (from 1922, females to 1930 only), eventually mostly voluntary admissions. All Bridgewater State Farm facilities and divisions (including prison, almshouse, insane, and medical hospital functions) were administered by a common superintendent. The running of the State Farm, including industries and extensive agricultural operations, relied on work performed by all capable inmates.
Restrictions: Criminal offender record information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 6, ss 167-178. For conditions of access consult repository 
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