By Joyce DeWallace, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Most people don’t know it exists. Fewer visit. Hidden behind overgrown trees and bushes at the point where Green Street meets Centech Boulevard near the Shrewsbury-Grafton town line is Hillcrest Cemetery, a small, neat graveyard that served as the burial place for residents of the former psychiatric facility, Grafton State Hospital. Over 1,000 patients who had been treated at the hospital were quietly buried there, marked by only small concrete blocks with carved numbers. In those days, indigent patients were not buried in vaults, just cardboard boxes, explained Phil Johnson, the current Parks and Cemetery Superintendent for the town of Grafton.
Flags flutter over the graves of veterans who served in both World Wars I and II, the Korean War and Vietnam. In the center of the cemetery stands a pillar of granite with a bronze monument listing the names and gravestone numbers of some of the veterans. Finding the names of those veterans and identifying their graves is very difficult, since most hospitals of this type at the time did not bother to label the burial places.
According to researcher Shuko Tamao, Grafton State Hospital, was established in 1901 as a farm colony for the higher-functioning patients to grow food for the nearby Worcester and Westborough state hospitals. Originally the site consisted of 700 acres of land for about 500 patients. By 1945, the hospital had expanded to over 1,200 acres with many buildings and structures for just under 2,000 patients. The facility closed in 1973.
The last caretaker for the Grafton State Hospital was a man named Richard Glispin, who also served as the fire chief for the town of Grafton. He did the original research in an attempt to uncover the names of the veterans buried at Hillcrest. Richard Perron, now deceased, was the veterans’ agent for the towns of Grafton, Shrewsbury and Northborough. He continued the quest to gather more information, but ran into many roadblocks and dead ends. Johnson worked with Perron on the project. Finally, they managed to get the cooperation of the Veterans’ Administration in Washington, D.C., and helped design and install the current memorial.
Still standing as part of the cemetery is an abandoned circular stone building, which once served as the water tower for the hospital. The construction began in the early 1900s with a wooden tank at the top to provide drinking water for the entire complex. All the wooden structures – the tank, the ceiling, floors and stairs have disappeared. What remains is a hollow shell of fieldstones with slits for windows and doors. Vines climb inside and on the exterior and moss grows on some of the stones.
The cemetery is maintained by the state with help from the Job Corps, a federal job training program, which now occupies part of the former hospital complex. Families of the deceased also assist in the cleanup. The cemetery was sadly neglected for many years. Through the urgings of Grafton citizens, the Job Corps cleaned up the cemetery grounds in time for a rededication ceremony for Veterans Day in 2009. Now the site is mowed regularly, and the small, square gravestones are clearly visible, although some are missing or buried, leaving hollow dents in the lawn.
Photos/Joyce DeWallace
