{"nrhp_refnum":"93001488","name":"Westborough State Hospital","other_names":["Westborough Insane Hospital"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Along Lyman St. N of Chauncy Lake and jct. of South St. and MA 9","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westborough","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.29680350000004,"lon":-71.60394925984127,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-01-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 650-acre state mental hospital campus on Lyman Street in Westborough and Northborough, Massachusetts, built around a main hospital building that incorporates an 1848 reform school, with patient wards, staff cottages, support buildings and farmland.","why_significant":"It is an early example of adaptive reuse in the Massachusetts state hospital system, preserving the 1848 Lyman School building as its oldest component. It had the state's first congregate dining room, offered homeopathic treatment as the second homeopathic state hospital in the nation, and engaged in medical and nursing education. Its buildings, many by noted architects, and its intact agricultural landscape convey the hospital's treatment programs.","narrative":"Westborough State Hospital is a 650-acre campus of hospital buildings, staff cottages, farm structures and pastureland on a hilltop above Lake Chauncy, spanning Westborough and Northborough. Its main building grew from the 1848 Lyman School for Boys, designed by Elias Carter and James Savage, which was remodeled by George Clough after the state converted the site to a hospital in 1884. That work added the state's first congregate dining room, meant to give patients a hotel-like sense of normalcy. Nearby stand Colonial Revival wards such as Talbot House, designed by Rand, Taylor, Kendall and Stevens, and Queen Anne and utilitarian buildings by other architects. The hospital was the second homeopathic state hospital in the nation, emphasizing rest, massage, hydrotherapy and diet, and it trained nurses and medical students. Fields, pastures and lawns remain close to their early twentieth-century pattern, showing how farm work formed part of patient treatment. The campus retains substantial integrity from 1845 to 1940.","period_of_significance":"1845 to 1940","architect_builder":"Kendall, Taylor & Stevens/Elias Carter/George Clough/Stephen Earle","architectural_style":"Mid 19th: Greek & Renaissance Revivals; Late 19th & 20th Revivals: Colonial Revival; Late 19th & 20th American: Craftsman; Other: Utilitarian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in hospital use. The small agricultural group is unused but in good condition, and Talbot House has been vacant for some years and is in fair condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.478767-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/7934/63793435/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/93001488.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001488/4ed99c1c5b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001488/4ed99c1c5b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Westborough_State_Hospital.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Westborough_State_Hospital.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793435","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westborough_State_Hospital","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7987131"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/westborough-state-hospital-93001488/"}