page_title: State Reform School for Boys
section_title: Family cottages
hierarchical_section_title: State Reform School for Boys / Reorganization to the cottage system 1860–72 / Family cottages
caption_attribution_description: English: Peters House
context_page_description: The State Reform School for boys in Westborough Massachusetts was a state institution for the reformation of juvenile offenders from 1848 to 1884. Originally conceived the facility was built to house up to 300 young boys but by 1852 an addition was added to house an additional 300 inmates. By 1857, there were 614 inmates at the reform school.
  After a devastating fire in 1859, that consumed half of the building and was set by one of the inmates, the school created a nautical branch to house some of the older boys on school ships. The youngest boys were housed in an old mill in the nearby village while some remained in what was left of the Reform School.
  By 1861 what was left of the Reform School was rebuilt and 3 "trust houses" were built, each holding approximately 30 boys. The "trust houses" as an experiment in juvenile reform in which boys were placed in a family setting known as the "cottage system". By 1872, the nautical branch was disbanded and in 1877 a "correctional" addition was added to the original building to house the older boys. After a riot broke out in 1877, information leaked to the media about cruel and unnecessarily severe punishment of the boys.
context_section_description: The progressive thought of juvenile Reform, in England, in the 1830s was to place 1 to 3 dozen inmates with similar characteristics in separate small houses under the supervision of a surrogate father or mother. The "family" thus created was to work, live, and attend school together, mixing only rarely with the inmates placed in other families. This was a radical departure from "congregate system" that the State Reform School for boys was founded on.
  The congregate system is a prison-like facility for housing delinquents in large dormitory areas, bringing them together under strict routines in classrooms, workshops, cafeterias and recreational areas. The main disadvantage of the congregate system is the older, more vicious boys are housed with the younger, more impressionable boys. This disadvantage is overcome with the cottage system.
  In the late 1830s, the Colonie de Mettray in France was built on the cottage system.
  In the United States, the cottage system was slow to catch on because of the greater expense of land, buildings, and services required, and the supposed increase difficulty of control of the inmates. Eventually, it was introduced with the opening of the Industrial School for Girls in Lancaster Massachusetts (1854) and the Ohio Reform School (1857) which was modeled after the Colonie de Mettray.
  By an act of the legislature in 1860, three Trust Houses were to be constructed on the school grounds at Westborough. One would be named the "Farmhouse" the second the "Peter's House" and the third would be named the "Garden House". The farmhouse was an existing structure pre-dating the reform school. It would be renovated to house 30 boys, a master and matron. The Peter's house was also an existing structure pre-dating the reform school. It was the home of the original owner of the property. It to was renovated to house 30 boys, a master and a matron. The garden house was a new building built on the ruins of the reform school section destroyed by fire. This was a brick structure intended to house 30 boys with a master and matron.
  The daily lives of the boys in the trust houses was intended to be like a large family. The boys, along with the master and matron, would set at the same table to eat their daily meals, which were prepared by the boys under the supervision of the matron. The chores of the house would all be done by the boys. The boys would be schooled by the master in one room of the house. Being employed mostly on the farm they could run away at any time if they so chose, but few of them did. Discipline was more parental in nature there being no physical restraints or confinement.
  After the first year of the trial, the trustees were so convinced of the benefits of the cottage system that they recommended to the legislature that two more homes be built and the number of boys housed in each be reduced to 20.
  The trust houses would remain as the central focus of reforming the younger boys throughout the remaining years of the institution. When the Reform School for Boys closed in 1884 the newly formed Lyman School for Boys was recreated under the cottage system.
caption: Dining room in "Peter House" (1871)
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