Cranberry Specialty Hospital

Cranberry Specialty Hospital was a tuberculosis sanatorium and later a chronic care facility operated by Plymouth County which was operational from 1919 until 1992 in Hanson, Massachusetts.[1]

Cranberry Specialty Hospital
Former names	Plymouth County Hospital (1919-1984)
General information
Status	Demolished
Type	Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Architectural style	Mediterranean Revival & Italianate
Address	266 High Street, Hanson, MA 02341
Construction started	1917
Inaugurated	May 31, 1919
Demolished	March 29, 2017
Height
Top floor	3 stories (center)
Technical details
Floor count	2 stories

Cranberry Specialty Hospital of Plymouth County was dedicated on May 31, 1919 as Plymouth County Hospital. The hospital opened to acclaim for its architecture and its modern treatment of tuberculosis-stricken children that it treated. It was one of the first new hospitals to feature a modern and state of the art heating system. An annex was built by 1922 that included additional rooms and wards for patients as well as an auditorium for patients and employees to enjoy. The hospital was also equipped with a large kitchen, a two slab morgue and a laboratory. In 1965, under the direction of superintendent C. Clark Streeter, the hospital transitioned from a tuberculosis sanatorium to a chronic care facility. The hospital complex was renamed the Cranberry Specialty Hospital of Plymouth County in c.1984. During the late 1980s, the hospital struggled with finances, lack of admission and inadequate treatment. The cost of maintaining the aging historic campus proved too much and in 1992 the hospital was shut down and relocated to Middleborough, MA where the new location would itself shut down before 2000.[2]

Though most of the campus has remained closed since 1992, the Annex has been used by the Plymouth County Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the University of Massachusetts, 4-H, and is also currently home to the Hanson Food Pantry. The remainder of the property has fallen into a state of disrepair and is condemned. Plans to renovate the large hospital building fell apart after a string of devastating arson fires in the early to mid-2000s that destroyed entire wards, the auditorium, the kitchen, and nurses living area. In 2009 the Town of Hanson erected a perimeter fence around the main building to keep children, vandals, and urban explorers out of the dangerous condemned buildings that also contain toxic levels of lead."Feasibility of Prospective Reuses of the Former Plymouth County Hospital" (PDF).</ref>[3]

Following another large fire in 2016, the Town of Hanson appropriated the funds to demolish the large number of abandoned buildings on the grounds.[4][5] Partial demolition occurred in October 2016 when the far two right wings of the hospital were demolished. Further demolition of the remainder of the hospital building has started as of January 2017. On March 28, 2017 physical demolition of the historic hospital building began.

The hospital was known for its Mediterranean Revival/Italianate architecture, a rarity in rural Massachusetts.

• 
  Open air patient ward in 2014. This ward was demolished in 2016.
• 
  View of the original wards and administration in the center, 2010.
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  View of the two annex wards on the right hand side built in 1921. Demolished in 2016.
• 
  Postcard view c.1919-1920
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  Main entrance to the hospital (located on High Street)
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  Document from Governor Calvin Coolidge's secretary stating Coolidge would not be able to attend the ceremony of dedication on May 31, 1919.
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  Handwritten draft for admission to the sanitarium. c.1919
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  1965 - Released following the transition from a TB sanitarium to a chronic care facility.