The Brandon Training School, Vermont’s only public institution for people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities, was opened in 1915 as the program that served Vermonters with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Founded as the Vermont State School for Feebleminded Children, the name was changed to Brandon State School in 1929 and later to the Brandon Training School. The institution once housed over 600 individuals, and served a total of 2,324 people over the years until its closure in 1993. Vermont was the second state to close its only public institution; New Hampshire was first in 1991.
Historic Documents
- Writing by Larry Bissonnette
- Memories of Brandon, The Work, The Fun - Edwin P. Place
- Conversations (Stories and photo essay) - Joan Stephens
- Life and Times at the Brandon Training School (Video) - Historic photographs from Brandon Training School, the only institution in Vermont for people with developmental disabilities. Brandon Training School closed in 1993. This video was produced in 2013 in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the closing of the school.
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Outside Looking In (Video) – Webster Miller – Interviews with people who use to live and work at Brandon Training School, archival photographs and photographs from within and around the last unrenovated buildings of the now defunct campus.
Closure of the Brandon Training School, 1993
20th Anniversary of the Closing of Brandon Training School
Brandon Training School Photographs
- Brandon Training School Aerial Summer View
- Brandon Training School Aerial Winter View
- Brandon Training School Dorm F