Norwich Hospital was opened in 1904 under the name Norwich State Hospital for the Insane as a means of relieving some of the overcrowding of Connecticut Valley Hospital. The hospital was partially constructed based on the Kirkbride Plan, a style of architecture for mental hospitals that emphasized the nineteenth century idea of moral treatment. The hospital was renamed to the Norwich State Hospital in 1926, and in 1961 it became Norwich Hospital. The patient population reached its peak at over 3,000 in the 1950s, but the National Register for Historic Places, which the hospital was added to in 1988, notes that the state inadequately funded and staffed the facility. In 1996 the hospital was closed after a majority of patients were discharged, and its remaining patients were transferred to local facilities like Connecticut Valley Hospital.

Norwich Hospital may not have exclusively buried deceased patients within the Brewster’s Neck Cemetery, however there are definitive records of at least three patients being buried there. Other deceased patients may have been buried in another cemetery the hospital used or returned to their families or counties. 

Further Reading

Norwich State Hospital Records (1904-1996) from Connecticut State Library

National Register for Historic Places Nomination Form (1987)

Norwich Bulletin Article on Norwich State Hospital (2011)