An aerial view in 1962 shows the sprawling complex of buildings that was Pineland Hospital and Training Center. In 1939, there were 51 buildings and about 200 employees at the center, according to Maine History Online. The patient population had decreased to fewer than 500 by the mid-1970s. Pineland closed in 1996.
A dormitory at Pineland Hospital and Training Center is shown in a 1972 photo. By 1978, Pineland was being monitored under the terms of a court-ordered consent decree after families filed a lawsuit against the state.
Residents of Pineland Center dance to the music of guest musicians Greg Boardman and Jeff McKeen in 1988 during the center's 80th anniversary celebration.
Some of the buildings at Pineland Hospital and Training Center are shown in an undated photo. By the early 1990s, the state decided to close Pineland, and it took two years to transfer the remaining 300 or so clients to community care.
A patient is shown at Pineland Center in New Gloucester in 1978. The worst abuses at Pineland were alleviated by the 1990s, one state official says.
Restraint chairs, such as this one shown in a 1985 photo, were used at the Pineland Center. Pineland had been notorious for abuse, especially through the 1970s – including forced sterilizations, removing healthy teeth from young people to prevent biting, unnecessary drugging of patients, unsanitary conditions and frequent use of straitjackets and chair restraints.
Peeling paint is evident at the Pineland Center in New Gloucester in this 1978 photo.
The Pineland Center, by the time it closed in 1996, had added features and services over the years, including a swimming pool for patients.
Mental health workers escort the last resident of Pineland Center to a van that would take her to a private home as the center closed its doors in 1996.
Pigeons are released during a celebration of the closing of Pineland Center in 1996. The release of the birds was meant to symbolize the residents' new freedom, their reintroduction to the broader community and their opportunity to soar to new heights in independent lives.
Local & State 
