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36 W o r c e s t e r 3 0 0 : C i t y o f I n n o v a t o r s 1822-1921 B efore Worcester State Hospital opened in 1833, there was no place in Massachusetts to receive care for any of the mental health issues gener- ally lumped under the term "lunatic" – unless you could afford to attend the recently opened, private McLean Hospital near Boston. e then-called Lunatic Hospital, the first in Massachusetts and one of the first in the country, was created by order of a state legis- lative committee, spearheaded by education reformer Horace Mann. e facility began to investigate the plight of the state's then-called lunatics. e investigators found numerous examples of people living in filth, subjected to abuse, and even exhibited like wild animals. In 1830, the legislature appropriated funds to build a 120-bed hospital and selected Summer Worcester leads in mental health care e first behavioral hospital in Mass. opened in the city Street in Worcester for its central location, close by but set back from city activities, with light and fresh air. Much was hoped from the moral cure ap- proach that founders adopted, which stressed care and understanding and prophesied a widespread curative effect. Also, the business community sought the state funds and pres- tige expected to accompany the hospital, with business leaders serving on its board and buying bonds to finance construction. But results were never as good as had been hoped. Unlike private-pay treatment centers, state hospital administrators could not pick and choose admissions and had to take all comers it could harbor, regardless of their chances of improvement. Demand for services soon overwhelmed the facility and its staff, leaving it chronically underfunded, with a deteriorating standard of care. Indeed, in- vestigations by Dorothea Dix in the 1840s led to state appropriations to expand the hospital. Eventually, a facility opened on Belmont Hill in 1876-77, by which time additional state hospitals were being built or contemplat- ed around the state. However, notes Ingrid Grenon, author of a history of the Wrentham State School, an institution founded with similar high ideals, the 1877 Worcester hospital began to experience issues of overcrowding. "As these places open and boast of progres- sive and humane conditions, they eventually become inundated with patients and the community fails to provide enough money and staffing to maintain acceptable conditions," Grenon said. Later in the 20th century, particularly with the development of new drug treatments, deinstitutionalization became a major trend that led to rethinking the hospital system in the state and globally – and Worcester State Hospital formally closed in 1991. But some ac- tivities remained on its campus. And, in 2012, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health opened the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, a 320‐bed recovery center in Worcester at Belmont Street near the site of the original campus, that "provides a state‐ of‐the‐art environment for patients and staff," according to the Department. "I was delighted to find a very high level of care and professionalism among my coworkers, advocates and psychiatric professionals while I worked at WRCH," Grenon said. — Alan R. Earls e Belmont Street campus of the Worccester State Hospital Image | Worcester Historical Museum