Fact Sheet dsmc

Thousands of graves lay abandoned, decaying and neglected in state hospital cemeteries, state schools, public health hospitals and prisons around the Commonwealth.

At Danvers State Hospital we found 768 graves in two cemeteries. Each grave is marked by only a number and the State has lost the record of what name goes with what number.

There are more forgotten and neglected cemeteries: At Northampton State Hospital; Medfield State Hospital; Foxboro State hospital; Gardiner State Hospital; Tewksbury Hospital; Worcester State Hospital; Metropolitan State Hospital; and Grafton State Hospital.

The ex-patients buried there are human being. Many were forgotten in life. We must not forget them in death.

Senate Bill 1530 will finally cleanup and restore the cemeteries and keep them that way!

Senate Bill 1530 calls for the establishment of The Commonwealth Public Facilities Burial Ground and Cemetery Preservation Fund for the purpose of:

Identifying, restoring, protecting, maintaining and memorializing any cemetery found on any past or present or future state-owned land
These properties would include current and former state schools for people with developmental disabilities, Public Health hospitals, prisons and state mental institutions
The funds for cemetery restoration will come from .5% of the sale or lease of state owned property such as the sale of state mental hospitals
The bill also calls for an accounting of the names of all those buried in cemeteries at former or current state facilities

Please print this Fact Sheet and distribute it to your friends or post it in your office or other places that people can see it
Please call or write the chairperson of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and tell him why you want Senate Bill 1530 to be passed. The Chairperson of Senate Ways and Means is State Senator Mark C. Montigny. Phone = 617-722-1481; fax = 617-722-1068; Address = Room 212, State House, Boston, MA 02133
Please call or write to the Vice Chairperson of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and tell him why you support the idea of state hospital cemetery restoration. The Vice Chairperson is State Senator Fred Berry. Phone = 617-722-1410; fax 617-722-1347; Address = Room 109-D, State house, Boston, MA 02133
Please write to the Assistant Vice Chairperson of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and tell him why you support this bill. The Assistant Vice Chairperson is State Senator Charles Shannon.Phone 617-722-1578; Address Room 511-A, State House, Boston MA 02133.
Write to all the Committee members of Senate Ways and Means. Click here for their names, fax, phones and addresses.