Belchertown State School

Massachusetts · United States · School

A Massachusetts institution whose treatment of the people held in it became a landmark court case. Two residents in love were kept apart and left each.

The state school at Belchertown, Massachusetts held people with intellectual disabilities, and the conditions inside it were bad enough to become a matter of public record and of litigation. That documented history is the reason the site is remembered, and it is more disturbing than anything reported since.

The story people tell is a small one against that background. Two residents, described in the accounts as having low intelligence rather than any serious disability, fell deeply in love. They were kept apart, because at the time it was held to be wrong for people in institutions to marry, to be together, or to have children.

They went to each other at night. They left notes. They whispered through windows.

What visitors report is the pair of them, running between their dormitories in the dark.

Of all the hauntings collected from American institutions, this is among the few where what is described is not suffering but two people getting round the rules. The buildings are closed and the site is private property.

FAQ

Where is Belchertown State School located?

Belchertown State School is in Massachusetts, United States.

More haunted places in Massachusetts

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.