Danvers Lunatic Asylum – Danvers, Massachusetts
A psychiatric hospital that was built in 1874 and opened in 1878 under the supervision of prominent Boston Architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee. It was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital designed and built according to the Kirkbride Plan. It is also rumored that it is the birthplace of pre-frontal lobotomy. The asylum was establishes to provide residential treatment and care to the mentally Ill. Its function expanded to include a training program for nurses in 1889 and a pathological research laboratory in 1895. The major reason for closing the hospital is because of the massive budget cuts. In June 2006, all the buildings of the Danvers Lunatic Asylum were demolished and had been torn down including all of the unused buildings and old homes on the lower grounds and all buildings on the hill.
