Episode 5: Fairfield Hills Psychiatric Hospital
Hosted by Michael A. Lally
Release date: January 13, 2022
Fairfield Hills Hospital stands as a commanding presence in Newtown, Connecticut, a small New England town that unfortunately came into the national spotlight with the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This episode takes a deeper look at Newtown’s history through Fairfield Hills, which was built in 1931 as a psychiatric hospital and functioned as such until 1995. It remained unoccupied until 2005, when the town bought the property from the state and tore down several of the hospital’s more derelict buildings and refurbished or rebuilt others. Producer Michael Lally investigates the early years of the hospital, the decade of abandonment that drew urban explorers and ghost hunters, and finally contemporary debates about the town’s “Master Plan” for the site. The story of Fairfield Hills prompts us to consider how a community negotiates and experiences the ghosts of a monument’s troubled past.
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About this episode of Monument Biography
About the host:
Michael A. Lally is a Ph.D. student in art history studying material culture and the built environment of the Western Indian Ocean coastline. His current research focuses on phenomenology and the interaction of the viewer, architecture, and culture in early modern Southern Arabia, East Africa, and the Horn of Africa. He received a B.A. in both art history and theoretical physics from Middlebury College before moving to Philadelphia to pursue his Ph.D.
About the guests:
Maryann Lally, a longtime resident of Newtown, currently works as Senior Counsel, Marketing and Cardholder Documentation at Synchrony Financial. Over the past 25 years, she took her children, Michael and Andrew, to Fairfield Hills for recreation, and since transferring to remote working, she frequently enjoys walks through Fairfield Hills.
Robert Linden, who grew up in Newtown, has recently returned to the town from New York City due to the pandemic. He now brings his work with him to Fairfield Hills.
Daniel Rosenthal was born and raised in Newtown. After Dan and his wife Meri graduated from Fairfield University and were married they settled in Newtown and are proud parents of Hana, Emi, and Ben. He is the current First Selectman of Newtown, a position that both his father and grandfather had held previously.
Want to learn more about the topics covered in this episode?
Esta Carini et al., The Mentally Ill in Connecticut: Changing Patterns of Care and the Evolution of Psychiatric Nursing, 1636-1972. Hartford: Dept. of Mental Health, 1974.
Walter Crabtree, The Work of Walter P. Crabtree, Architect, New Britain, Conn. New York: Architectural Catalog Co., 1923.
Nancy Crevier, “Tales from Fairfield Hills,” The Newtown Bee, May 25, 2012.
Chuck Hall, Inside Fairfield State Hospital. Bridgeport: Hallcrest Co., 1954.
Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States. University of Minnesota Press, 2007.
Website of the Newtown Historical Society
Website of Fairfield Hills Campus
Fairfield Hills Hospital on Atlas Obscura
Fairfield Hills: The True Story video
Music credits for this episode of Monument Biography:
Musical arrangements by Michael Lally
“Asylum” by Mystery Mammal