Adams-Nervine Asylum

The Adams-Nervine Asylum was incorporated in 1877 and opened in 1880 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. The estate provided an attractive, picturesque setting, as it was situated on Centre Street, in the neighborhood of Bussy Park and the Arnold Arboretum. Having previously been owned by J. Gardiner Weld, it was purchased by Seth Adams with his fortune acquired from his sugar refinery in South Boston. With his brother Isaac, Seth had formerly manufactured printing presses and machinery. On his death, his estate bequeathed $600,000 for the establishment of a curative institution for the benefit of indigent, debilitated and nervous people: inhabitants of the State who were not insane. The trustees purchased neighboring properties for the...