Laconia State School, Laconia New Hampshire

History of the Laconia State School

The Laconia State School has been called by several names throughout its history. From its establishment in 1901 through 1924, the institution was known as the New Hampshire School for the Feeble-Minded. From 1924 to 1969, and in current colloquial use, the institution was known as Laconia State School. From 1969 to 1988, it was Laconia State School and Training Center. From 1988-1991, it was Laconia Developmental Services. After 1994, it was no longer used as an institution for people with developmental disabilities but rather as a prison; in this incarnation, it was known as the Lakes Region Facility.

The school was the only state facility for young people with developmental disabilities from its founding in 1903 to its closure in 1991. While difficult to comprehend under modern standards, the institution was founded as a school for the "feeble-minded" in part to segregate them from the general population. The institution was planned to provide safe housing and an education for children with developmental disabilities but soon became over-crowded with a population too large to adequately provide for the needs of all housed there. Laconia State School espoused national trends of the times with a critical component of the school throughout much of its history being the inclusion of home and farm labor as part of the educational process. The agrarian features of the property, including fallow fields and farm buildings, remain to convey this important component of the institution.

In nineteenth century New Hampshire, the almshouse, better known as the county farm or the slang "poor house," was the primary means to provide housing for the poor, indigent and anyone with developmental disabilities or mental illness. The living conditions in the almshouses were typically unsanitary, unhealthy, and unsafe, particularly for vulnerable populations. In 1893, a devastating fire swept though the Strafford County farm killing forty-one people. A huge controversy arose about the conditions in the almshouses, particularly for children. In 1895, legislation was passed to provide for the education and maintenance of dependent children (Laws of 1895, Ch. 116, Sect. 4). As a part of that legislation, a state Board of Charities and Corrections was created to oversee the care of persons dependent on the state who were housed in county farms. The Board recommended that radical changes were needed in the methods of caring for the poor and the mentally ill.

Sentiment was building in New Hampshire to establish a school specifically for children with developmental disabilities and in 1901 the New Hampshire Federation of Women's Clubs petitioned the New Hampshire House of Representatives to establish a "school and home for the feeble-minded." In their petition, they asked two questions: "As a simple act of justice, is it right for the State, the guardian and protector of all its citizens - its children - to discriminate wholly in favor of those who are well endowed, and cast off those, who through no fault of theirs, are lacking in mental equipment? Furthermore, as an act of self protection, is it not the part of wisdom to guard society from the crimes, the vice, and the immorality of this degenerate class, who with their weak willpower and deficient judgment are easily influenced by evil?"

The Laconia State School was founded on the generally accepted principle of the time that "feeble-mindedness" represented not only a cognitive shortcoming but also a moral flaw. The Legislature accepted the recommendation to establish the school, and Laconia was chosen from among the municipalities who lobbied to host it. The site selection process was described as follows:

Land was purchased from the Crocket family that consisted of 247 acres of land, a farmhouse, and a barn, along with other various buildings and farm hand cottages. None of these original buildings are extant. The Crocket house was converted to the Superintendent's home and administrative offices. A dormitory, along with a school building, was constructed. First known as the New Hampshire School for the Feeble-Minded, Laconia State School opened in 1903.

Originally the school housed children between the ages of 3 and 21, and in 1904 there was a population of 66. In 1905 was opened to women over 21. By 1906, there were 82 residents, and there was a waiting list of more than 90. During that same year, the campus was electrified by the Laconia Electric Lighting Company. Of the 82 people at the school, it was said that 61 came from the almshouses or other state institutions, and 21 came from private homes. By 1910, the School had a new superintendent, Dr. Benjamin Ward Baker, a nationally known and well-respected leader. The number of buildings had increased to include a farm building (no longer extant), a boiler house with extensive steam tunnel system, a laundry, dining hall (which also housed a dormitory for employees), an additional dormitory (which allowed girls to be housed separately from the boys), and a hospital (no longer extant), in addition to the already existing school (no longer extant) and administration building (no longer extant). There were 96 admissions in 1910, with the average age being eleven years. Demand for the school was overwhelming and overcrowding had set in by 1916 when there were nearly 300 residents.

In May 1913 the State Legislature, under the administration of Governor Samuel D. Felker, established the State Board of Control "which ha[d] in general charge the various institutions maintained by the state." The legislation abolished the individual Boards of Trustees of the State Hospital in Concord, State Industrial School in Manchester, Laconia State School, and the State Sanatorium in Glencliff and placed responsibility with a single entity, the Board of Control, effective 1^st June 1913. In August 1913 a contract for a year was made with Chase R. Whitcher of Manchester, N.H., under which he became State Architect, to draw plans and specifications, submit estimates, and generally supervise institutional construction.

Several of the early twentieth century buildings at Laconia State School were constructed by noted New Hampshire architect, Chase Roy Whitcher. Whitcher, a New Hampshire native, was active from c. 1900 until his death in 1940. He was one of the leading and most successful architects of New Hampshire, purportedly responsible for the design of over 300 buildings, predominantly in the state. The majority of his identified commissions to date include a range of institutional structures, including schools, hospitals, Masonic halls, and office buildings, fire stations, churches, country clubs, and town halls. Whitcher's design aesthetic incorporated common architectural elements popular during the period in which he practiced. Of his known works, Colonial and Classical Revival motifs are the most common. His institutional designs commonly feature symmetrical facades with center entrances sheltered by columned porticos; brick walls with contrasting stone quoins, window sills, and lintels; cornices embellished with modillions and dentils; parapets; and primary entrances with leaded transoms and sidelights-all elements common to early twentieth century Colonial Revival and Classical Revival buildings.

Buildings on the Laconia State School campus attributed to Whitcher include: the Quinby Building (1905 and subsequent expansion in 1926); the Laundry Building (1910); a 1913 Dormitory (Felker Building); a 1914 building (Spaulding Building); and the 1934 Dairy Barn. Additional Whitcher buildings on the campus may come to light as further research is conducted, including review of Governor and Council records at the State Archives. The State Board of Control was abolished in 1915, just two years after its inception, and oversight returned to the individual institutions.

At the onset of the founding of the school, the goal was to be self-sustaining. New Hampshire institutions were not unique to this philosophy as institutions throughout the country began to adopt the "colony system" founded by Dr. Walter E. Fernald, Superintendent of the Massachusetts School for the Keeble-Minded, who articulated the benefits of patient labor. He observed that manual labor reinforced the patient's practical training, instilled a feeling of worth, and occupied their time productively (Black 2001). Fernald further noted that without the labor provided by the custodial department's patients, the work "otherwise would have to be done by paid employees." Under this system, which came to be called institutional peonage, employees, or aids, were paid to supervise the patients who worked in the institution's bakery, shoe shop, laundry, kitchen, etc. A notable example at the Laconia State School is found in the history of Quinby, where residents and staff dug a new root cellar/basement for the building in 1912.

Superintendent Baker requested the state purchase as much land as possible around the buildings, to prevent trespassing and to enable the school to raise all the food it needed for the inmates, as well as to feed the horses and cows. An additional 238 acres was acquired for tillage purposes in 1920. Various barns and outbuildings were either constructed or enlarged during the 1920-30s. During this period, products of the farm included (but certainly not limited to) milk, potatoes, cabbage, corn, lettuce; eggs, asparagus, and celery; meat products included beef, pork, and veal.

During the 1920s and 1930s, conditions at the school, which was renamed the Laconia State School in 1924, steadily deteriorated. During the Great Depression, more and more families with fewer and fewer resources sought to place family members at the school while the state legislature, faced with plummeting revenues, did not increase its budget. As the country industrialized and urbanized, institutions across the United States expanded much faster than their capability to provide appropriate training and educational services. By 1930, more than 100,000 persons with mental retardation were institutionalized across the United States and most residents received minimal custodial care. This trend toward custodial care, medication, and "warehousing" of persons with mental retardation increased after World War II and throughout the 1950s. Indeed, by 1942 the school housed more than 600 residents, served by staff working 51 hours a week in two shifts, leaving one staff ember responsible for 30 or 35 residents.

The eugenics movement, which advocated improving the genetic qualities of the human race by, in part, reducing reproduction by people with "undesirable" genetic traits, swept New Hampshire state institutions beginning in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Those espousing eugenics thought that "feeble-mindedness" was a condition that was hereditary and involved not only impaired cognitive functioning but also impaired moral functioning. Feeble-mindedness was seen as a root cause of many social problems: adult crime, sexual immorality, juvenile vice and delinquency. Therefore, the solution for these problems was the segregation of feeble-minded people and the taking of measures which would prevent this population from reproducing, up to and including sterilization. In 1917, a law was enacted which permitted sterilization of people who were diagnosed as feeble-minded or having mental disease. Initially, a person could not be sterilized without his or her consent as well as the consent of the nearest relative or guardian. Later, this law was amended to put the decision-making authority in the hands of the Board of Trustees and three physicians, and the consent of the individual was no longer needed. Biennial reports for the Laconia State School note the number of sterilizations performed each year at the institution during this period.

While some residents lived out much of their life at the school, a parole system was in place by 1932. In order to alleviate overcrowding, some of the inmates left the school to work in the community. 91 males residents and 83 female residents left Laconia State School during the five years between July, 1925 and July 1930. Some were transferred to other state institutions, and two enlisted in the Army or Navy. Of these 174, there were 31 deaths. A cemetery was established on Chemung Road in Meredith in 1941 for the burial of residents of the Laconia State School. Before this cemetery was opened, residents were buried in unmarked graves at unknown locations on school grounds. This cemetery was not surveyed as part of this study, nor were burial locations on the campus identified.

Conditions at Laconia State School were grim by 1950; the dormitories were overcrowded, the institution was under-staffed, and the building suffered from deferred maintenance. Some of the residents worked on the farm or around the facility, but many did nothing throughout the day. Beds were pushed together with no room in between. There was no privacy and no room for personal possessions. The walls and floors of the buildings were made of brick and tile for ease in cleaning, but this left the rooms very institutional, with no home-like touches at all. In 1952, a television was donated to the school and that became the program for many inmates. Televisions soon filled the common rooms, encased in boxes covered with wire and controlled by staff. These boxes are still evident in some of the dormitory buildings on campus.

The 1954 Biennial Report for the Laconia State School provides an inventory of the buildings located on the campus at that time, reflecting some of the changes in treatment ideals for the children and adults with developmental disabilities:

Trends promoting community service as part of the treatment plan for developmental disabilities evolved, in part, out of the "parent movement" in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, parental involvement increased at the Laconia State School and there were minor advancements in the living conditions at the campus. With the appointment of a new superintendent during the early 1950s, Richard Hungerford brought a change in philosophy and began a reform movement with his emphasis on education and family visitation. Several dormitory buildings were constructed during this period which were of a much smaller scale and included a well lighted recreation room. These cottages were more "home-like." There were curtains on the windows, room for private possessions, and bedrooms for two and three people. However, Hungerford resigned in 1960, citing as the cause New Hampshire's bureaucracy, which was, he alleged, concerned more with finances then obligation to those in need. Hungerford was replaced by Superintendent Arthur Toll, an educator and public administrator, who worked to change the school from custodial care to a therapeutic integration program.

In line with nationwide trends, medicating children with developmental disabilities during the 1960s-70s became a common treatment plan at the Laconia State School. This decreased focus on work-training programs and institutional self-sufficiency resulted in the dissolution of the farm program, which was shut down in 1968; in 1970, the dairy herd was sold. Those residents more capable of functioning in the general public were placed into the community. A small portion of people worked in sheltered workshops. The number of residents still continued to grow. In 1962, there were 990 residents; in 1974, there were 1,000 residents with a waiting list of 400. During this period, several additional buildings were constructed to meet demand including the new Administration Building, Dube Building (for the elderly), King Building, Peterson Building, Powell Building, and Toll Building.

A significant change in the running of the facility was to occur, when, in 1975, Michael Dillon, a superintendent of the Central Connecticut Regional Center was invited to Laconia to make recommendations on how to improve the program. His visit, in part, prompted the state legislature to pass RSA 171-A which mandated "The Division of Mental Health to establish, maintain, implement and coordinate a comprehensive service delivery system for persons with developmental disabilities." It was during this period that the school was renamed the Laconia State School and Training Center.

Nationwide, public awareness of the poor conditions at state institutions, often resulting from the actions of parents' groups, prompted action to change the way developmental disabilities were treated; changes to treatment options, provision of services, and the very idea of institutionalization were considered and tested. In New Hampshire, a class-action lawsuit instigated by parents of Laconia State School residents in 1978 was filed to demand improved conditions at the campus. In essence, the lawsuit claimed that the State had violated its own law for the provision of a minimum amount of services and was in violation of the US Constitution. Conditions at the school were described in the document, noting:

Problems included basic logistics, including a fully-accessible new training and education center, Toll Building, but no accessible transportation for wheelchair users to this building. The quality of the living quarters at the school was noted as inconsistent. Of the twelve buildings, only six were certified by the federal government as Intermediary Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded. It was noted that the four cottage style dormitories were sound and provided some privacy as well as pleasant surroundings. The cottage style dormitories consisted of Dube, used for elder care, Peterson, Rice, and Speare. The lawsuit resulted in a court order to reduce the size of the school, which forced many residents into community placements. Over the next fifteen years as the community support system was built, more and more residents were moved out of the facility. On January 31^st, 1991, the Laconia State School closed.

By the end of 1991, after considering several proposals, portions of Laconia State School were turned into a medium-security state prison known as the Lakes Region Facility. Barbed-wire fencing surrounded six of the primary buildings at the core of campus which were re-purposed to house an inmate population of approximately 500. The prison was intended to be temporary, with closure set for 1998. However, it continued to operate until decreases in stale funding prompted its closure in 2009. Overlapping uses during the 1990s-2000s included state police training, technical training and education, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, sexual offenders rehabilitation, and commercial applications. The majority of the property has not been utilized since closure of the prison. Three buildings were in use in July 2011: Dwinnell (regional facility), Dube (social services facility) and the Physician's Cottage (sex-offender facility).

The property has been put up for sale by the state, a developer is planning to use the land for a new housing development.

Latest development plans for State School include grocery store (Apr 10^th, 2025)

Laconia State School Sale Moving Forward, But a Ways To Go (February 5^th, 2025)

State approves new deal for former Laconia school site, but questions remain (September 26^th, 2024)

Laconia State School: documenting a history some would rather forget (Apr 28^th, 2010)

Latest development plans for State School include grocery store (Apr 10^th, 2025)

Property Description

Laconia is part of the New England Upland physiographic region, which encompasses parts of New Hampshire and Vermont. The uplands are hilly and transitional between the seaboard lowlands and the mountains, having a plateau-like landscape that rises gradually inland from the sea and is capped in places by mountain ranges and individual peaks. The City is located in Belknap County in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire on four different lakes: Lake Winnipesaukee, Lake Opechee, Paugus Bay and Lake Winnisquam. The City is bounded on the north by the town of Meredith and Lake Winnipesaukee, on the west by Lake Winnisquam, on the east by the town of Gilford and on the south by the towns of Belmont and Gilford. The City encompasses a total of 27.243 square miles, of which 21.126 square miles is land and 6.117 square miles is water. Laconia State School is located immediately to the north of the urban area of the City proper on rich farmland soils adjacent to Lake Winnisquam.

The Laconia State School sits on 222 acres of land north of the commercial and residential center of Laconia and is bisected by Right Way Path. The property is bounded by Route 106 to the south, Ahern State Park to the west, Eastern Road to the north, and Meredith Center Road to the east. There are 33 buildings and 9 structures on the property with the majority situated on the south side of Right Way Path. Two chicken coops/sheds and two water towers on the northernmost edge of the campus are inaccessible. The buildings sit within a pastoral setting of now fallow agricultural fields located to the east of the primary buildings.

The earliest purpose-built institutional buildings were developed in a semi-circular pattern around a grassy quad. These buildings include Keyes (1917), Blood (1942), Baker (1927), Murphy (1935 and 1963) and Felker (1913); all were constructed during the early twentieth century in the Colonial Revival style. Typical exterior character-defining features include multi-storied brick exteriors with quoining; raised basements; cross-gabled hipped roofs; large ventilation chimneys; prominent entry porches; and large bands of multi-paned windows with cast stone sills and lintels.

The complex was designed to be self-sustaining and there arc several associated buildings that were constructed to keep the institution running. These include Quinby (1905 and 1920s) which was used as the kitchen and dining hall and Spaulding (1914) which housed staff. A concentration of utilitarian buildings is located in a swale below the primary buildings to the south. These include a laundry and sewing room (1910 and 1938), boiler house with extensive steam tunnels (1905 and 1940), office (mid-20^th Century), administrative building (mid-20^th Century), garages (mid-20^th Century), and salt storage (mid-20^th Century). Many of these buildings are constructed of brick and display a more simplified design aesthetic appropriate to their utilitarian functions.

Barns and outbuildings (various dates) are located on the east side of Right Way Path and were used throughout much of the institution's history for the growing and storage of crops for the residents and staff. These buildings sit on the edge of a fallow field and wooded area that was used for crop production during the twentieth century up until 1968 when the farm labor program was discontinued.

The campus continued to evolve during the mid-twentieth century with the construction of three "cottage" style dormitories between 1954-1970 (Speare, 1954; Rice, 1954; and Peterson, 1971). These buildings are located toward the north end of the campus and were designed to have a home-like atmosphere with a smaller residential population than the more traditional dormitories constructed during the early twentieth century. Toll Building was constructed in 1974 for use as a school with offices and a gymnasium and pool. Several additional dormitories were scattered throughout the campus during this period and include Powell (1963), King (1964) and Dube (1969). All buildings from this period have brick exteriors with simple minimalistic detailing and rely more on massing and layout rather than architectural features to convey their function and design.

Landscape and setting are important in understanding the development of the Laconia State School and should be considered important character-defining features of the property. These include (but are not limited to) open fields surrounding the built-campus; stone walls, including one leading north along Right Way Path; stone culverts; small play areas scattered throughout the campus; pathways; wooded and cleared areas; and the primary quad in front of the dormitories. Underground facilities include an extensive steam tunnel system that extends from the boiler house across a significant portion of the property to the majority of the buildings.

Laconia State School can most easily be compared in New Hampshire to the New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord and the Youth Development Center (formerly known as the State Reform School) in Manchester. While both complexes were developed during the mid-nineteenth century, they utilized much of the same design philosophy including a tight complex of Colonial Revival style dormitories located within green space for the enrichment of the residents. All three complexes include mid-twentieth century buildings constructed following current trends in social services at that time.

Photographs of Laconia State School