Warning
what you are about to read is my personal perspective of Grafton State Hospital
in no way do I wish to offend anyone in anyway.
Please don’t take my opinions personal. If you do not wish to
learn and see exactly what I have to say then please leave now. Thank You
While I was touring the grounds someone had told me that Grafton Job Corps used to be an old mental hospital. At first I really was not interested so I just shrugged it off. As I went along with the tour I could see this huge boarded up brick building I asked what it was and the tour guide told me it was the old dorms. I continued the tour and came upon this enormous coal power plant. It was amazing to me because I never saw one before and the tour guide mentioned that it was the power supply for the old hospital. Now I have to admit by this time I was getting curious. After having pizza and all the soda I could drink in the cafeteria the tour ended. I also toured Shriver Job Corps and it was nothing like Grafton Job Corps. Some of the rules were the same and the campus looked brand new, but I did not like Shriver Job Corps because it was too strict, too crowded and most of all, the entire atmosphere was uncomfortable. It reminded me of when I was incarcerated. Grafton Job Corps on the other hand was great. It was in the woods and I love the outdoors, it was quiet, it was peaceful, a little more laid back and most of all it holds a great part of Massachusetts history. The history of the grounds was great in itself. Right after I toured Shriver I called my admissions counselor and told him I wanted to go to Grafton Job Corps.
I waited every day for my phone to ring. Hoping that I was accepted into the school. Three months of patience I waited for the call. Then finally it happened one day while I was at work I got a call from my admissions counselor. He told me I that I had been accepted to go to Grafton Job Corps. The guy gave me a number to call and told me to ask for the admissions department and tell them my name. So I called up Grafton Job Corps and the lady told me when to come to the center the following Tuesday. I packed my stuff that night. The closer Tuesday came the more impatient I had become. Not just because I was going to Job Corps but also because I was going to take my next step towards changing my life around. I was headed toward my future, my goals and my career.
This is a picture from the old female dorms
As soon as I stepped on the grounds I felt comfortable. Some people don’t like old places but I do and a lot of people judge Grafton Job Corps because of the old buildings. I tell you how amazing it would be if these walls could speak. The center would have been built new but they could not destroy the buildings because they’re historic. So Job Corps recycled the old Grafton State Hospital. Just like Tufts did with some of the past buildings. Grafton Job Corps was opened Sept 16, 1981. The old dorms were used until 1996. Tufts University of School of Vetinary Medicine enrolled its 1st class in 1979. After they discovered that asbestos was in the walls of the old dorms they decided to build new ones. After the move, the once dark and forsaken building was left and abandoned again. It remains abandoned until this day. Grafton Job Corps Security ended up sealing every entrance and they put a ten-foot chain link fence around the building. It is highly unlikely that any one will ever get to go inside ever again with out the proper authorization. Of course you might be wondering how I got inside, well I happened to get that special authorization after four months of waiting. The center boarded up most of the windows and every last door. Ever since then it just sits there and lets the vines crawl through the broken windows and it provides a place for the pigeons to take cover during the winter.
Outside
of Pines C (old dorms) Picture thanks to Urbansights.net
This is a picture from Elms the writing is self explanatory
I found out what was true and what was a lie. I found more then I was looking for. So I decided to make a website. The reason why was because I wanted to share all this from a students perspective, because I live on the grounds of Grafton State Hospital. I am doing this for people who are interested in learning about it more. Plus, Grafton Job Corps residents for many years to come. So I took a class on web page design a while ago and I wanted to make a website but I didn’t know what about until I heard about the hospital. By myself I have done this, with no help from teachers or friends. I have researched hard from the Internet to talking to former residents, to talking to local community members who have lived in Grafton Mass all their life. I have explored quite a bit on the grounds and taken pictures. The only thing that bothers me is why the truth is hidden from us. Why 1041 people have been buried in the cemetery that is right on the grounds of GSH. . It cost Grafton State Hospital a lot of money to hold a burial, so much that local funeral homes use to take turns donating their services for the deceased patients funerals and interment if there were no family affiliations. The graves don’t even have names (with the exception of about 12) just a little rectangle block with a number implanted in the ground all in rows 1-1041 in a area that’s half the size of a football field. Most of them are sunk in and have vegetation growing over them. What’s to happen when they fully disappear? Keep in mind that some of them fought in WWI and II there is even some who fought in Vietnam, these people fought for us and many came back from the wars with mental illness’s and got sent to GSH. I know this because about 10 to 11 graves have sticks with plastic badges that indicate what war they had fought in. There is a pet cemetery near Tuft’s that has the pet’s gravestones with their name on it the year they where born and when they had died. Some of these even our made out of marble. Something’s wrong with this picture! Plus all those people had family to! These people if anything deserve to be identified. What happened to human dignity? It should be the pets that have numbers on their graves not our fellow human beings. It’s stuff like this that the government hide that makes people accuse the government of being corrupt. Hold on because I’m not even done yet. What about the family members of the deceased patients? The Massachusetts Historical Commission, claim that a handwritten list of the deceased patients names survives in various archives. But they won’t let you have a look at it unless it can be proven that you where a family member of that patient.
This is a photo of gravestone number 1021
By, Ryan Livernois
Copyright, Tazz 2004
