Grafton State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Grafton, Massachusetts that operated from 1901 to 1973. Today, the site has been redeveloped with Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine as a major occupant, along with the Grafton Job Corps office and various other State agencies.Because of its significance in the history of the treatment of the mentally ill and its layout and institutional architecture, the hospital area was accepted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.HistoryGrafton State Hospital was established in 1901 as a farm colony for "chronic insane patients" of the Worcester State Hospital. In 1912 it was administratively separated from Worcester.The Grafton campus was built to both increase the capacity of the Worcester hospital and to provide therapeutic work for patients. To start the new hospital, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts purchased approximately of land in northeast Grafton and abutting portions of Shrewsbury, from the Ashley and Sinclair families, Samuel Knowlton and Lyman Rice. Intended to be self-sufficient, agriculture was an important part of the Hospital's plan. As the agricultural focus grew other areas of treatment suffered, leading the state to conclude in 1945 that "there is little or no occupational therapy in effect now. Farming, canning, and general maintenance are the institution's principal occupations."In 1957, noted Jazz musician Thelonious Monk was briefly held for observation at the Grafton State Hospital after a State Trooper found him at Logan Airport acting erratically and then becoming unresponsive to questioning.
