Fairfield State Hospital
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fairfield State Hospital is located in Newtown, Connecticut (also known as Fairfield Hills). It was established in the early 1930s and was closed in December of 1995. The entire campus is interconnected with a vast underground tunnel system. At its peak, it was home to nearly 4,000 patients.
[edit] History
Fairfield State Hospital was created due to overcrowding at the other two state hospitals. The building style was Colonial Revival that was so typical in New England. The hospital was designed not to have any dark corners or cubbyholes. The cornerstone was laid for the first building in July of 1933. Roughly half of the main buildings were erected in the 1930s and '40s, with the rest of the larger ones completed in the 1950s. The hospital opened and received its first patients from Connecticut Valley Hospital on June 1, 1931.
Due to deinstitutionalization in the '60s and '70s, there was less of a need for hospitals like Fairfield Hills. With the high cost of running underused hospitals, state hospitals around the country shut their doors. In 1995, Gov. John Rowland closed Fairfield Hills and its sister hospital, Norwich State Hospital. All patients that remained were moved to Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown, Connecticut.
The Town of Newtown rented out the first floor of Canaan House from the mid-1990s up until 2004 or 2005; it was home to the town's Board of Education, Planning & Zoning, and Fire Marshall.
The Reed Intermediate School is also located on the property.
[edit] Fairfield Hills on film
The film Man to Man was shot in Kent House in the late 1950s. It is a very rare piece that was made for psychological education.
The feature film Sleepers used the hospital as a setting. Actors on location included Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon. Several scenes used local boys as extras.
An episode of MTV's Fear was shot at Fairfield Hills. It was featured on Season 1, Episode 2 and was renamed "St. Agnes Hospital." This was mainly to protect the hospital from local teenagers, ghost hunters, and urban explorers. The real location has been common knowledge on the internet almost since the original air date of the episode.
The film adaptation of The Madman's Tale was to be filmed between October 26, 2007 and January 8, 2008. Due to complications with the cast, production was stopped before anything was filmed on location.
Future Plans
The Town of Newtown is currently in the process of figuring out exactly what to do with the empty campus. As of August 2007, Fairfield House, one of the patient dormitories, is being demolished to make way for a baseball field. Bridgewater House, Litchfield House, and Greenwich House are all on the list to be taken down; in their place will be a combination of baseball fields and parking lots.
