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The Metropolitan State Hospital and the macabre backstory behind the doomed asylum

The Metropolitan State Hospital was an American public hospital for the mentally ill, located on grounds that extended across parts of Waltham, Lexington, and Belmont, Massachusetts.

At one time the hospital was the largest and most modern facility of its type in Massachusetts. The Gaebler Children’s Center for mentally ill youths was located on the grounds of the hospital.

The visibly gruesome interior of the Metropolitan  State hospital is backed up with an incredibly macabre tale that will make your skin crawl.

This tale that earned the hospital its nickname  “The Hospital of Seven Teeth ” took place in 1978 when a patient name Anna Marie Davee went for a walk around the hospital and has never returned.

 

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In 1980, the killer of Anna Marie Davee, a fellow patient named Melvin Wilson, showed  the police  three separate graves where he had buried parts of her body.

As if this is not creepy enough, Wilson kept seven of the girl’s teeth as  a souvenir.

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The hospital was closed in January 1992 as a result of the state’s cost-cutting policy of closing its mental hospitals and moving patients into private care.

 

Photo by liza31337

 

he administration building on the former grounds of metropolitan state hospital Waltham MA. This is the last unrenovated building.

 

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Since the hospital’s closing, the area to the west of where the buildings once stood has been developed into apartment housing.

The extensive wooded grounds are open to the public and protected in perpetuity from further development. T

he trails include part of the Western Greenway link open space in the region, connecting to the Rock Meadow conservation area in Belmont to the east, and, according to future plans, in 2009, to the Middlesex County Hospital area to the west.

All photos by liza31337/Flickr

Ian Smith

Ian Smith is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News