Author Topic: paul dever state school history?  (Read 8028 times)

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Offline Dreadrising354

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paul dever state school history?
« on: October 02, 2012, 06:33:13 PM »
ive been curious about the paul dever state school in taunton ma's history. i havent found any real good information or pictures of the buildings. does anyone have any solid info/pics from its past? anything would be appreciated. also whats going on there? i havent seen the securtiy trailer there in months.....

Offline Kurt

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Re: paul dever state school history?
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2012, 06:57:10 PM »
Honestly, this is about all you will find.


The Paul A. Dever State School, also known as the Myles Standish School for the Mentally Retarded is a former state school located in Taunton, Massachusetts, at the former site of Camp Myles Standish. Camp Myles Standish was a U.S. Army camp located in Taunton, Massachusetts. It functioned as a prisoner-of-war camp, a departure area for about a million U.S. and Allied soldiers; and a candidate site for the United Nations Headquarters. The city of Taunton was notified in June 1942 by the War Department what 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) would be taken for use as a military staging area. The design of the layout for the camp was made by the J.F.Worcester Company. The Matthew Cummings Company of Boston received the contract to construct the buildings. The camp opened on October 8, 1942 and was named in honor of Myles Standish who was the first military commander in the Old Colony region. Camp Myles Standish represented the Boston Port of Embarkation where American soldiers as well as soldiers from Canada, Great Britain and Australia process before engaging in the European Theater of World War II.
 
As the camp functioned as the port of embarkation, a quartermaster was set up so an entire division could be prepared for deployment within a day. Often, divisions would go to Africa or Iceland. This made train traffic understandably chaotic, with trains regularly coming into town from Providence, Rhode Island Springfield, Massachusetts and Boston. The yard itself, run by the New Haven Railroad, contained about ten miles of track.
 
German soldiers who were captured during the war were detained at this camp. Also, Italian soldiers were detained there as well although they were considered 'co-belligerents' because Italy had surrendered by the time the Italian soldiers arrived at Camp Myles Standish.
 
The camp closed in January 1946 following World War II. The site of Camp Myles Standish was briefly considered as a possible site for the United Nations.
 
There are several buildings that were once part of Camp Myles Standish that still remain standing as of 2009.


Soon after the military camp closed It was turned into a school for the mentally disabled in 1959. At this time, the name was changed to the Paul A. Dever State School, after the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1949–1953, Paul A. Dever.



The campus is about 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) and originally consists of 15 L-Shaped dormitory buildings connected by about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of tunnels along with recreational sites. Additionally, a centrally located kitchen was also built with other structures. Much of the facility closed in 1991 due to lawsuits over funding, with the entire facility closing in 2002. About 45 buildings still stand as of September 2012.



-and there is still an active security trailer (Madison Secuirty) there. They patrol the active buildings at the front. The rest of the property (which is now owned by the City as opped to the State) is patrolled by Police. There was a recent fire here so patrols have been upped.

Offline Dreadrising354

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Re: paul dever state school history?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2012, 05:55:00 PM »
thanks for the info, ive been all over the web and noone really has alot to say so that really helped. it stinks that someone had to cause a fire there. i havent been there in awhile and wanted to go but now that ik theres city patrols there im deffinatly gonna watch out.