Westborough State Hospital

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.