Ceremony to honor Westborough State Hospital patients buried in town cemetery

In a patch of land in Westborough’s Pine Grove Cemetery are a few hundred graves. Most are unmarked, brushed past and covered over with grass and weeds, seemingly forgotten in the passing of time.
But that is about to change.

Buried there were nearly 500 patients at the now-closed Westborough State Hospital. On Saturday, May 9, Westborough town officials and mental health advocates will join together for a memorial ceremony in their honor with guests speakers and bagpipes.

Glenn Malloy, a former member of the hospital’s board of trustees member, has led the grass-roots campaign to bring the issue to light. He first heard of the condition of that section of the cemetery a decade ago at a board meeting, he said.

“That brought up a red flag in me,” Malloy said. “I was troubled by the thought people were given unmarked graves.”
 
The hospital, which treated people with mental illnesses, began burying patients at the site, owned by the town, in the early 1900’s, with the last recorded burial in 1986, according to cemetery director Don Gale. After that, burials were done in Worcester, he said. The hospital closed in 2010.

Malloy, along with Gale, selectmen chairman George Barrette, architect Ed Clinton and Sarah Utka, from the creative solutions group Advocates, are working to permanently commemorate the deceased with a physical memorial. The design will consist of five granite slabs, each donning a bronze plaque with 100 names.

The group is looking for support from the community to raise its goal of $30,000, the price tag of the memorial. Malloy said he wants to have it finished in the next 12 to 18 months and is confident the funding will be raised.