Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= Coös County Farm
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|Title= Boston State Hospital
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|Body= In November 1866, Coös County purchased the Isiah Pickard farm on the banks of the Connecticut River to establish the county’s poor farm, using the existing farmhouse buildings to house the poor, insane, prisoners. In 1867, a three-story addition to the original farmhouse was completed to create the Almshouse, with the capacity for 100-120 people.
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|Body= The Boston State Hospital – originally called the Boston Lunatic Asylum – was founded in South Boston in 1839. By the 1880s, new ideas about the care of the mentally ill emphasized the importance of fresh air, hard work, and separation from the adverse influences (both social and environmental) of city life, an approach that was referred to as “moral treatment.” Thus, when the time came to move out of the old and overcrowded facilities in South Boston, the Asylum’s leaders looked to West Roxbury – at that time a semi-rural area that had only recently been incorporated into the city of Boston – as an appropriate setting for a new hospital.
  
The poor farm sat on 575 acres, land that provided work and food for the inmates. The Superintendent’s residence, Almshouse, and the building used for the insane were connected and form a long row of wooden buildings. Various barns, carriage houses, and agricultural outbuildings scattered the farmland.
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Beginning in 1884, some Asylum residents were moved to the former almshouse at Austin Farm, just across Morton Street from the present Boston Nature Center, where the Harvard Commons development stands today. In 1892, looking for more room for both buildings and farmland, the City purchased the 35-acre Pierce Farm, along Walk Hill and Canterbury Streets – part of which land is now the western end of the BNC. A few years later, the City bought another parcel of land, adjoining Pierce Farm and Canterbury Street, which now includes much of the Clark Cooper Community Gardens and other areas in the central part of the BNC.  [[Boston State Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
 
The Almshouse eventually grew to four-stories, with the east half being occupied by women and west by men. There were separate dining rooms for each sex, and a large women’s sitting room, which was also used as an assembly room for religious meetings. There was also a school room for children, though reports state that any orphans were eventually transferred to the Orphan’s Home at Franklin.  [[Coös County Farm|Click here for more...]]
 
 
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Revision as of 10:57, 23 February 2025

Featured Article Of The Week

Boston State Hospital


BostonSH.png

The Boston State Hospital – originally called the Boston Lunatic Asylum – was founded in South Boston in 1839. By the 1880s, new ideas about the care of the mentally ill emphasized the importance of fresh air, hard work, and separation from the adverse influences (both social and environmental) of city life, an approach that was referred to as “moral treatment.” Thus, when the time came to move out of the old and overcrowded facilities in South Boston, the Asylum’s leaders looked to West Roxbury – at that time a semi-rural area that had only recently been incorporated into the city of Boston – as an appropriate setting for a new hospital.

Beginning in 1884, some Asylum residents were moved to the former almshouse at Austin Farm, just across Morton Street from the present Boston Nature Center, where the Harvard Commons development stands today. In 1892, looking for more room for both buildings and farmland, the City purchased the 35-acre Pierce Farm, along Walk Hill and Canterbury Streets – part of which land is now the western end of the BNC. A few years later, the City bought another parcel of land, adjoining Pierce Farm and Canterbury Street, which now includes much of the Clark Cooper Community Gardens and other areas in the central part of the BNC. Click here for more...