Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Weathervane Wednesday ~ Above a former insane asylum

Weathervane Wednesday is an on-going series of photographs I post weekly.  I started out by publishing only weather vanes from the Londonderry area, but now I've been finding interesting weather vanes from all over New England.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are very interesting.  Often, my readers tip me off to some very unique and unusual weather vanes.

Today's weather vane is from somewhere in Massachusetts.

Do you know the location of weather vane #210?  Scroll down to see the answer...








Today’s weather vane photos were sent to me by reader and fellow genealogist Sharon Gillis.  She photographed the Medfield State Hospital and sent me the weathervane photo via Facebook.   Her photos of the entire hospital campus were wonderful, and I asked her for permission to use a few for this blog post.

According to Wikipedia this hospital was originally the Medfield Insane Asylum, established in 1892 as the first public facility in Massachusetts for mental patients.  The campus was developed between 1896 and 1914 and had 58 buildings and a capacity to care for 2,200 patients.  It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and closed in 2003.  The grounds were used for filming major motion pictures such as Shutter Island and The Box.   Several buildings have been demolished.

The town of Medfield has plans to re-develop the campus.   No plans have been made public yet.

Wikipedia “Medfield State Hospital”  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medfield_State_Hospital

Wicked Local Medfield “Medfield Owns State Hospital:  $3.1 Million land deal finalized” , posted 4 December 2014 http://medfield.wickedlocal.com/article/20141204/NEWS/141208073

Youtube video “A World Apart: A History of Medfield State Hospital”   (30 minutes)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fgXBNELwpg 


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Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

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