Frankfort State Hospital and School Cemetery
Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Frankfort State Hospital and School Cemetery. In 1860, Gov. Magoffin signed a bill establishing the Kentucky Institution for the Education and Training of Feeble-Minded Children. In the 1940s, the name changed to the Kentucky Training Home. Adults were admitted and housed with the children due to overcrowding. Capacity was 616, but rose to 1129 residents. (Reverse) By 1963, the name changed to Frankfort State Hospital and School. It closed in 1972. Many residents spent their entire lives here working as unpaid staff by maintaining the institution. More than 411 people are buried in the cemetery, with most graves marked as “unknown.”
Erected by Kentucky Historical Society
The Story
In 1860 Governor Magoffin signed a bill creating the Kentucky Institution for the Education and Training of Feeble-Minded Children, one of the era's new state institutions for people with disabilities. Renamed several times over the following century, it became badly overcrowded—built for 616 residents but holding as many as 1,129—and many residents spent their entire lives here, laboring unpaid to maintain the facility until it closed in 1972. More than 411 people lie in this cemetery, most graves marked only "unknown."
Why it matters
The cemetery bears witness to how nineteenth- and twentieth-century America institutionalized people with disabilities, and to the forgotten lives now being reclaimed from anonymity.
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