Metropolitan State Hospital (Massachusetts)

Metropolitan State Hospital
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Waltham, Massachusetts United States
Built	1927-28
Architect	Gordon S. Kobb
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	93001482
Added to NRHP	January 21, 1994

The Metropolitan State Hospital was an American public hospital for the mentally ill, located in the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. The Gaebler Children's Center for mentally ill youths was located on the grounds of the hospital.

It was closed in January 1992 as a result of the state's cost-cutting policy of closing its mental hospitals and moving patients into private care (see privatization). As of 2005, the large complex of buildings is being gradually demolished.

It should not be confused with the Metropolitan State Hospital in California.

Redevelopment and Open Space

Since the hospital closed, the area of the buildings has been developed as apartment housing. The extensive wooded grounds are open to the public and protected in perpituity from further development. The trails include part of the the part of the Western Greenway link open space in the region, connecting to the Rock Meadow conservation area in Belmont to the east, and, according to future plans, in 2009, to the Middlesex County Hospital area to the west.

Patient Murder Scandal

In 1978, Metropolitan State patient Anne Marie Davee was murdered by another patient, Melvin W. Wilson. Wilson dismembered Davee's body and kept seven of her teeth which were discovered in his possession by employees of the hospital. Despite this discovery and its obvious implications, no action was taken against Wilson until Massachusetts State Senator Sen. Jack Backman (D-Brookline) led a Senate investigation into the case along with 19 other reports of negligence by state mental health workers. On August 12, 1980 Wilson led investigators to at least three burial sites where he put pieces of Davee's body. Much of the material evidence in the case had been destroyed or gone missing. This evidence included a "hut" in the woods where Davee and Wilson met, clothes and even sheets which hospital employees discovered the day after her disappearance. Nearly two months after her murder, another search by hospital staff yielded pieces of Davee's clothing and belongings along with a hatchet, the supposed murder weapon.

See also "All of Gods Little Angels," a documentary/dead website. In the early 1960's, Met State had an active children's ward. Before the Davee/Wilson case, more than two dozen preteens died and were buried on the grounds.

• "The dismembered body of a Metropolitan State... " Boston Globe Newspaper Aug 12, 1980
• "Backman: Hospital Murder Data Missing" Boston Globe Newspaper Aug 15, 1980

External links

• Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
• Template:Nrhp source1
• Local History & Genealogy - Waltham Room, with information on the closing of the hospital
• Website dedicated to the Metropolitan State Hospital including many images, a map, and other general information
• Waltham Land Trust: The Western Greenway
• The area in the OpenStreetMap shows trails.