Boston State Hospital

Boston State Hospital
Current Status	Demolished
Building Style	Cottage Plan

The Boston State Hospital opened in 1839 in South Boston, then known as Boston Lunatic Asylum. In 1884 84 patients were transferred to Austin Farm in Roxbury, which was organized under the name "Retreat for the Insane". In 1893 it was made part of the hospital & in 1895 new buildings were constructed on Pierce farm. By 1897 the name had been changed to Boston Insane Hospital.

In May 1895, Boston's Industrial Aid Society devised a plan whereby the poor would raise vegetables on vacant City land. Families in the Mattapan and Dorchester community began growing their produce on the old planting fields of the Hospital along American Legion Highway in 1968. At that time, the use of abandoned public land or vacant lots for community gardens was quite novel, but in actuality, it was simply repeating history...The growing recession in the 1970s made community gardening at Boston State Hospital not only a social and recreational activity, but an economic one, helping people supplement family food budgets" (Heath, R, "The Great Meadows of Canterbury: Boston State Hospital Urban Wilds," 1993, p11).

In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the Community Advisory Committee for the Boston State Hospital planning process, the Massachusetts Audubon Society bought the Boston State Hospital land from the City at a price of $10 per acre. Mass Audubon then established a community adversary board of 30 people, more than half of whom came from surrounding communities (The Boston Nature Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, 1996).

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