1,000 patients in a town of about 6,788. Where did they all come from?
On the record
The asylum received its first patients on August 16, 1858. Designed to accommodate 1000 patients, in 1925 work began on the largest expansion of Northampton State Hospital: Memorial Complex. The original design specified a maximum of 200 patients, but this limit was raised to 250 by the statewide hospital Commissioners before the asylum opened.