Brandon Training School
| Brandon Training School | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1912 |
| Opened | 1915 |
| Closed | 1993 |
| Current Status | Closed |
| Building Style | Cottage Plan |
| Location | Brandon, VT |
| Alternate Names |
|
History
In 1912 the Vermont State Legislature authorized the construction of a school for the care and training of feeble-minded children aged 5-21 years. When the State School for the Feeble-minded in Brandon, Vermont opened in 1915, it soon assumed the eugenic function of segregation from society of "feeble-minded women of childbearing age."
The institution filled rapidly and soon became over-crowded with women and children, many placed there for reasons of poverty, neglect, illiteracy, or failure in school. Social, legal, and economic forces conspired to create the problem. In 1918, destitute children could no longer be placed in poorhouses or on poor farms, and child welfare agents often placed children at Brandon. In 1919, the age for women committed to Brandon was raised to 45 years. In 1921 town listers were required by law to submit names and ages of feeble-minded children in their towns.
Dr. Truman J. Allen served as Vermont State School superintendent from 1918 until his death in 1937. Born in Royalton, Vermont in 1888, Dr. Allen graduated from the UVM College of Medicine in 1913. He served as assistant physician at the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane and Instructor of Mental Diseases at the UVM College of Medicine prior to his appointment at Brandon. Persistently frustrated with over-crowded facilities and low budgets, Dr. Allen sought to expand the institution and enlarge its authority over Vermont's "feeble-minded" population. In 1925, a colony for feeble-minded women was started in Rutland, where women received training as domestics and were hired out to local families to help make the institution self-supporting.
The Vermont State School assumed an important role in Vermont's eugenics movement. Records of inmates provided starting points for the Eugenics Survey's "pedigrees of degenerate families" in 1925-28 and for their 1929 study of the "Brandon Waiting List." Inmates were tested in the National Committee of Mental Hygiene 1927 mental survey of Vermont school children. While Truman Allen's support for eugenics was qualified, he actively promoted the passage of the 1931 sterilization law as "one tool" in a comprehensive program to control the mentally deficient population.
Dr. Allen's successor, Dr. Frederick Thorne, supported eugenic measures in the 1940s, expanded the women's colony at Rutland, and enlarged his authority over state programs for mental retardation. He supervised the state psychiatric clinics begun in 1939 and served on the State Board for Control of Mental Defectives. From 1915 until it closed in 1993, Brandon Training School was home to 2,324 Vermonters. the boy scouts of america had a asylum post and a exploer post which were though the brandon training school / Vermont state hosptial and deb preseau
- Boy Scout America Troop 111 , Explorer Post 111 Inmates , Indians , disabled Brandon Police Department
it was part of community reparative education with boy scouts of america troop 111 , explorers pot 111 and vermont police academy law enforcement explores under Chief Joseph Arduca and Laurie Krupp Jeff elrick sgt Wingit and Deb Preseau and bob weeden Wayle Googlota was the scouting executive at the time . the bsa recently filed chapter 11 for to settle sex abuse cases. there are also other abuses which are evident form social services and law enforcement town of brandon state of vermont the entities that becaome native affairs for wabanaki and municipal agencies
Brandon and Waterbury have some grants for social programs which came in though mental institutions and multi purpose facilities
After the closing the State attempted to sell the buildings in one piece. This effort was unsuccessful and the buildings were eventually sold piecemeal. Today the facilities are known as Park Village and all of the buildings except one are occupied by doctors’ offices, daycare facilities, subsidized housing, a music and arts center and other small businesses.
Images
Aerial View of BTS in summer
Aerial View of BTS in winter
Videos
Made for the 20th Anniversary of the closing of the Brandon Training School.
<videoflash type="vimeo">87941789</videoflash>
The Dec. 9, 1993 closing ceremony of Brandon Training School, the only institution in Vermont for people with developmental disabilities.
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Source: State of Vermont, Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, Developmental Disabilities Services Division
Links
Brandon Training School site at the Vermont Division of Disability and Aging Services
