A series of unfavorable events occurred on July 22, 1991 which resulted in the partial desctruction of Worcester State Hospital-The Kirkbride buildings. It was reported that early in the morning of 7/22/1991, Webber Lumber Home Center in Oxford, MA caught fire. The blaze required support from surrounding towns, including the Worcester Fire Department. Also on that day, the city of Worcester was working on the water lines around Belmont Street and Lake Ave North. This resulted in water being shut off in various areas, including the fire hydrants around the area of 102 Belmont Street.

Speculation proposes the fire began in the attic or top floor of the left wing of the Kirkbride building. The slate roof's natural propensity to contain fire posits that the fire at Worcester State Hospital had been smoldering for some time prior to it being reported. Only smoke was seen rising from the roof, so the true damage was unknown. With the fire contained in Oxford, the local teams were dispatched to Worcester State Hospital. The inhabitants of the Kirkbride building and the nearby Bryant building were evacuated. The fire fighters had to run hoses down to Lake Quinsiagmond as the closets hydrants were shut off. The pictures below show the damage and restoration of the buildings.

Sources

Books and pictures

Historical Pictures

The original Worcester State Hospital  opened on 1833. The land that it once occupied is now part of I-290. The only evidence that it ever existed in the area is a street sign, appropriately labeled "Asylum Street". Occasionally, the street sign disappears. (Picture below: Asylum Street location, 1857; ) The Kirkbride Buildings, constructed in 1877, are the ones that were demolished in 2008-2009 to make way for the new Worcester State Hospital.

                                                                                      State Lunatic Hospital, 1837

                                               Picture: The Enduring Asylum, (eds) Morrissey,Goldman, & Klerman. 1980; pg28. 

   Worcester State Hospital is an enduring figure in the history of psychiatry.  Off the top of my head: It was the first public hospital in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was one of two places that Freud and Jung visited on their only American trip; one of its Superintendants was the 1st president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA); Walter Freeman, the inventor of the Ice Pick lobotomy performed "surgery" here; it was said that he had them lined up down the hall (Technique can be viewed in the movie, "From Hell" starring Johnny Depp) ; and it was originally founded upon the Quaker principle of Moral Treatment.

     Moral treatment for mental illness was an innovative idea at the time- treat people who are mentally ill humanely, give them a daily routine, provide work, social, and recreational activities in addition to medical therapy. Prior treatment essentially consisted of imprisonment and abuse. Samuel Woodward, (the 1st superintendent) claimed recovery rates due to moral treatment to be from  82 to 91% during 1833-1845.  (Pliny Earle, an MD at NorthHamptom, questioned the results (Grob, pgs 74-75) ). According to a later study of 984 patients discharged from 1833-1846, 53% had a life long recovery rate (Whitaker, 2002; pg 36) . Another Superintendent of WSH, John G. Park (1879-1890) found similar results- 51% recovery rate (Grob, pg 77). It is not clear whether or not this was a complete recovery or if the discharged patients were able to sucessfully manage their illness, however, their diagnoses are not available either.