Plymouth County Hospital
1919- 1992
Hanson, Massachusetts
History
Plymouth County Hospital is located on Bonney Hill in Hanson, Massachusetts. Designed in a unique Mediterranean Revival style typical for New England, the hospital was constructed under the direction of renowned Boston architect J. William Beals. It was established as a long-term health facility for children suffering from tuberculosis, opening its doors on May 31, 1919, with its first patient admitted on June 16 of that same year.
The hospital featured two dormitory wards on either side, complete with large windows and porches. The central area housed administrative offices, classrooms, a kitchen, a dining hall, a laboratory, a surgical ward, and a morgue. The campus also included a barn, nurse dormitories, and a superintendent's house. In 1922, two annex wards were constructed on the east side of the building, which included a theater for the children and a curved corridor connecting the original hospital to the new wards. Notably, the hospital was the first in the area to be equipped with a modern, state-of-the-art heating system at the time.
Plymouth County Hospital served children until the 1960s when treatment for tuberculosis began to decline. In 1965, it transitioned from a tuberculosis hospital to a chronic care facility under the leadership of Superintendent C. Clark Streeter. The hospital changed its name to Cranberry Specialty Hospital in 1982 and continued to operate until 1991, when it closed to relocate its services to another facility in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Operations continued into the early 2000s before the hospital closed permanently.
On March 28, 2017, the former tuberculosis hospital on Bonney Hill was demolished.