Danvers State Insane Asylum - Danvers Massachusetts

The Danvers Insane Asylum was opened in 1878. The hospital originally consisted of two main center buildings, housing the administration, with four wings attached and over the years other buildings were constructed, such as a new auditorium. 

The original intent was to house 500 patients with mental illness. In 1930-1940 there were over 2,000 patients.

Patients living there consisted of having mental illnesses. Over time there were patients that were intellectually disabled and and people with substance abuse issues. Each diagnosed person would live in a building or wing that fell into a specific category such as a place for the intellectually disabled. 

There were also expansions of education for those in the medical field within the facility, including a training program for nurses in 1889 and a pathological research laboratory in 1895. In the 1920's the hospital was operating school clinics to help determine mental issues in children.

Upon my research this hospital's philosophy was based upon humane treatment. There was said to initially have been no restraints and that doctors wanted to help cure patients rather than have them hidden from society. Over the years practice changed and restraints were used such as lobotomies, straight jackets and shock therapy. 

Property changed over time as well. Initially over 40 buildings were built on the property, including buildings for tuberculosis patients, two nursing homes, staff housing, the Bonner medical building, machine shops, pump house, a cemetery, several cottages as well as underground tunnels connecting all of the buildings.

From my research there is not an identified amount of people located in the Danver's State Insane Asylum's Cemetery, but there are hundreds of patients buried within and most of the graves are marked by a number, not a name. I found in 1939, 278 patients died. On an average, after about the 1930's, there were as many as a 1,000 patients admitted annually. In the beginning of the asylum patients helped with creating gardens and farming which led to harvests that fed the staff and themselves. There were also opportunities for exercising. Overtime, however, the asylum began to overcrowd and patients were given less therapy and more restraints.  


The hospital (it was later called Danvers State Hospital) shut down in 1996 due to lack of funds to support it essentially. There were reports written about allegations of abuse and the maltreatment of restraints onto the patients which were publicly scrutinized. It is unclear if these allegations are true or where the information was founded.