Lyman School Westborough MA  
 
 
 Lyman Boys School in Westborough Massachusetts ( 1848-1971)
                      This Educational History page started 2-27-01 by Dick Bolt  [email protected]
                                                        Last Edited/upgraded 04-25-08
The Lyman School for Boys in Westborough Massachusetts was created in 1846 as "State Manual Labor School". It was located on Chancy Pond on 180 Acre Farm.


Note: The web site is NOT from a former resident! It is a history site that was set up with minimual info & photos. It only builds from contribution of the readers/viewers. I have had at least 3 ex residends contact me with helpfull information. Also there was contact by one whoes parents worked there. Westborough MA is next to Grafton where I grew up. RBB
 

Chauncy Hall in Westborough

Hillside Cottage in Westborough

Is this the Berlin Building at the Berlin MA 
Lyman School 
This is likely one of the Lyman School classes ?
One alumni on line says it looks like one of the buildings, but no blacks were allowed !
It looks like the back boy/man was next to one of the staff, so he could be the hired help ?
It makes one wonder what the State of Massachusetts did with the troubled black & Indian boys ?

Walter Meigs on left
This photo was sent by relatives of theirs :
From census of 1920 info: Walter Meigs age 9 on first
page of census with his parents, Gertrude (34) and Frank Meigs (30).Photo Age of Walter  is abt. 11 &  Alfred Griffin abt. 16.  Ira & Sarah Dudley, Managers of the School
Lyman School Asby MA ( Not the Westborough one)

Report on photo by ex resident
        The building on the right of photo looks very much like the building that still stands where new internies left their street clothes and got their inside garb. That brick building was called "the stores" and contained the carpenter shop, the paint shop, and the print shop when I was at Lyman. The white house was notthere and, in fact, nothing was on its site. I think a court-house is now on or near its site now

Article in Westborough History Book?
Shows Orig building design.Fires in 1859  & 1900 destroyed much of school. 

Interior class room of Lyman School in 1870 period (stereo card)
This is an 1870ca view by Thomas Lewis of Cambridgeport, Mass. No. 57 from his Westboro Mass.Series entitled, School in Farm House-Reform School. The class is being conducted in the Massachusetts State Reform School, Westbrorough (later "Lyman School for Boys") which opened in 1848. The boys, all in uniform, pose with their books open on their desks. 

 


 

More Lyman School Related Photos
Old News Clippings of Westborough Lyman School ( Riots & Fires)--New 6/7/06 Lyman School Article of 1902 Period in magazine---New 6/15/06 E-Mail from Internet of Interest & from Former Residentd School Founder, Theodore Lyman History
Lyman School Census 1860 Lyman School Census 
1870
Lyman School Census
1900
Lyman School Census 
1920
Lyman School Census 
1930
Library of Congress listing of Lyman School Records
NEW-Book about life at Lyman School in 1950s
Harvard College Library Records related to Lyman School Photos of the Lyman School Students Photos of the Lyman School Buildings
Lyman School Teachers Lyman School Internal Documents Crime Stories Book Reference to the Lyman School on Internet Obits of Adults working at school

LEAF, James G. "A History of the Internal Organization of the State Reform School for Boys at
          Westborough, Massachusetts (1846-1974)." Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1988. 



http://www.ancestry.com/search/io/browse.asp?c=3&ed=184&dbname=&state=Massachusetts&STAbrv=MA&county=Worcester&township=Unknown+Townships&startimg=383&endImg=400&roll=T625_749&rp=383

New leeds for research:
From NY Times articles not fully seen yet:
Aug. 25, 1859-Reforme school burned down by boy who was student there.(See Worcester Paper?)
Jan.15,1877-Riot in Reform School (See Worcester Paper?)
May 14th, 1877-Editorial on Reform school does not reform
Aug.5th, 1877-Reform school punishment
Aug 27th, 1900-2 boys burn in barn at Lyman School (See Worcester Paper?)