The Brandon State School, also known historically as the Brandon Training School and the Vermont State School for Feeble Minded Children, was a psychiatric facility for the care and treatment of children in
Brandon, Vermont
Brandon is a New England town, town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 4,129.
History
On October 20, 1761, the town of Neshobe was chartered to Capt. Josiah Powers. In ...
. Founded in 1915,
HEALTH CARE IN VERMONT DATABASE AND TIMELINE
/ref> it was Vermont's first state-funded residential facility for the care of the mentally handicapped. It was closed in 1993, a consequence of changing policies in the treatment and care of such individuals. The surviving buildings of the property,National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1999.
History
The school was established as the Vermont State School for Feeble Minded Children by an act of the state legislature in 1912, and was formally opened in 1915 on this campus, which then consisted of purchased from the estate of Henry Watson, located west of U.S. Route 7
U.S. Route 7 (US 7) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in western New England that runs for through the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The highway's southern terminus is at Interstate 95 (I-95) e ...
about one mile northwest of Brandon village. In 1917 the state authorized the construction of a dormitory, along with an administration building and a service building, and developed plans for additional facilities. By the late 1930s, the school, renamed the Brandon State School in 1929, had four dormitories, classroom buildings, and other support facilities. The school was again renamed, to the Brandon Training School, in 1956.[
In the late 1960s and 1970s, federal requirements forced the school to increase employee/student ratios, and resulted in a gradual shift in treatment of mentally handicapped youth to smaller group home settings scattered across the state. Raymond Mulcahy, who was the Superintendent during this time period, was a strong advocate for de-institutionalization and was a positive force for change for the patients at Brandon Training School. Under his leadership, the Training School began to place more and more residents into community housing. The school was permanently closed in 1993. The school's campus, many of its buildings handsome Colonial Revival structures designed by Burlington architect Frank Lyman Austin, have since been repurposed into apartments and commercial facilities.][
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See also
*
* Brattleboro Retreat
The Brattleboro Retreat is a private not-for-profit mental health hospital that provides comprehensive inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient treatment services for children, adolescents, and adults.
Located just north of downtown Br ...
* Vermont State Hospital
Vermont State Hospital, alternately known as the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane and the Waterbury Asylum, was a mental institution built in 1890 in Waterbury, Vermont to help relieve overcrowding at the privately run Vermont Asylum for th ...
References
External links
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Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont
Colonial Revival architecture in Vermont
School buildings completed in 1915
Buildings and structures in Brandon, Vermont
Defunct hospitals in Vermont
National Register of Historic Places in Rutland County, Vermont
Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont
1915 establishments in Vermont
Hospitals disestablished in 1993