Fairlawn Hospital is located on May Street near the intersection of June Street. Like the other hospitals, it has been added onto several times.

This building was purchased by the "four-square" church and is now home to Triunmphant Life Ministries

The Odd Fellows Home is still standing on Randolph Rd. in Worcester, kitty corner across from the Higgins Amory, and directly across from Dodge Park Retirement Home and C&R Tire. It is not part of Fairlawn Hospital. The original building picutred above still stands and there was a wing added during the 1990's.

In 17th century England, it was odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need and of pursuing projects for the benefit of all mankind. Those who belonged to such an organization were called "Odd Fellows". Odd Fellows are also known as "The Three Link Fraternity" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is one of the largest and oldest fraternal orders in the United States. Odd Fellowship was founded in England where it grew up during the 18th century. Odd Fellows Nursing Home of Worcester was established in 1892.

This building was used in an episode of the 'X-Files' in the 1990's as a backdrop for a hospital. In the story, some patients were given eastern medicinal treatments by an orderly which caused them to see strange things. It's a picturesque building with a spooky feel to it. It's believable enough in some ways that there would be 'ghosts' there just looking at that brooding place standing overlooking the city.

from http://www.archive.org/details/dictionaryofworc00rice Dictionary of Worcester (Massachusetts) and its vicinity (1893) second issue State homes for disabled members of the I. O. O. F., and the widows and orphans of deceased brothers who required assistance, had been erected in different sections of the country before the idea was taken up in Massachusetts. The matter came before the Grand Lodge in this State in 1874, and was put off from time to time till 1887, when active measures were taken to effect a practical result in the raising of money to build a State Home. Within two years $35,000 had been obtained, and the offer of Thomas H. Dodge, Esq., of a tract of eleven acres of land near Barber's Crossing in Worcester settled the question of the location of the Home, and steps were taken towards the speedy erection of the buildmg. The trustees purchased considerable land in addition to that given by Mr. Dodge, and of this 10,000 feet was set off in garden plots to be allotted to Rebekah Lodges, which will assume the care of them. The site of the building is elevated, and the whole tract affords a fine prospect. The building was erected from plans by Barker & Nourse. It is four and one-half stories high, built of brick and brownstone. Forty inmates can be accommodated, allowing each a room. The cost was about $50,000. The corner stone was laid Oct. 8, 1890, with appropriate ceremonies. The oration was delivered by C. M. Busbee of North Carolna, grand sire of the Sovereign Grand Lodge. The Home was dedicated on the 22d of June, 1892, on which occasion there was a grand parade of Odd Fellows from all parts of the State.

I worked in the original Odd Fellows building from 1985-1988 in the Maintenance Dept. w/ George Menard. I mostly worked the overnight shift 11:30- 7 am. George was a great guy to work for, and I had many conversations with some of the residents about the "old days" as they called it. I did lots of snowplowing in the winter, and cut the fields in the summer. The old clock tower was a great place to look out from at night and see the entire city. The additional wing folks talk about was added in 1925. I made some good friends there. Too bad it hasn't been maintained very well by the present owners.

In the 1950s there was a grand chestnut tree on the front grounds. Remember folk sitting on the terraces. Dodge Park is across the street and the Armony adjacent. Believe a mre modern wing/blg serves today as a nursing home.

The place looks really eerie on cloudy and rainy mornings. with it's a boarded windows as well as one smashed one. Maybe its so intriguing to me because It looks so forbidden and abandoned. I'd love to go in there at night!

i grew up going to the church that was housed in the odd fellows home in worcester. i have many creepy memories of travelling with my older brother and his friends the 3rd and 4th floors which mysteriously were never used by the church despite needs for more space. the rooms on these floors were virtually untouched complete with hospital beds, prosthetic limbs, old style wheelchairs, and bats galore. i started going to church there at the age of 6 and left when i was 17 will never forget the enormous sense of "awareness" that the building seems to have. years ago friends and i found a whole room in the basement containing records spanning the home's life. the place has some very interesting stories!

I grew up on Ericsson street in the late 1940's and 1950's. I used to ride my bike around the grounds of the Home but had great fun playing in and around the barn behind the home at the time. They had cows in the fields and we would jump into the hay in the barn. There was a huge chestnut tree outside the barn. We would roll down the hill behind the barn, it is now covered with trees, I got dizzy and threw up. We also played in the Higgins museum which was air-conditioned. It was a great time and place to grow up.

In June 2013 it was anounced that the old stucture would be taken down, to make way for two nursing/rest homes each housing 41 units.

There were no records left and very, very little equipment or beds left when the Odd Fellows moved to the new building next door and sold this old one. You only find records left when an org goes insolvent and closes quickly. This building was a planned move and all records are kept for a certain time frame and then destroyed. I've been through the building many times over the last 20 years to take pics, though not in a few years now. The Church built a large gathering room off the back and converted the administration building (built back in the 40s)as a day-care\Sunday school. The main (front) building which faces Randolph road was completed finished back in the old days, where as the old back building only had the first 3 floors fully built out, the fourth floor was unfinished and mainly consisted of wood beams with a few rooms built out of bead board (you've seen this type of boarding used for wainscoting in old Victorians and 3 Decker homes)for storage. The clock in the front building is an old mechanical clock with a very simple design. Just below the clock tower is an elevator machinery room for the one elevator in the place. First floor in the first building has the main hall\ballroom, go down the stairs from there and you'll hit another room in the basement, go down the hallway and you eventually hit the old industrial kitchen and pantry. As to whether the place in haunted or not, I'd gone there at all hours of the day and night when I was younger; only had one experience in the Kitchen where I felt something was with me and my flashlight's beam seemed to be swallowed in the darkness. Could it have been my imagination, I suppose but I'm not easily scarred, don't mind being in complete darkness in old building or supposed haunted building and I have to say I felt my hairs on my neck and arms stand up on end. Also when your flashlight goes from hitting the wall 20 feet away to not going a few feet in from of you it creeps you out a little.

Save this building! It is a historic landmark and is set to be torn down. Imagine the fabulous things that could be done with this place! Is there anything that can be done?

I have an idea. In its current condition it sure looks like it could still be rehabbed in different sections, until complete, unlike Worcester State Mental Hospital. If only basic money could be spent on stabilizing the roof and gutters to keep the water, which caused the most damage, say through a state or federal grant. That would be the start. Then boarding up all the accessible entrances to the building to keep out vandals and arsonists. Those boarded up windows can be disguised as actual windows though painting or covering with vinyl representations of windows so the property would not look like an eyesore to the area. Then the water suppression, sprinklers, would be turned back on with minimal heat needed to keep them from freezing. A small squad of security guards would patrol the building and make sure that it was not entered without permission, kind of like they are doing with the old courthouse. To do this a fence would have to be placed around the property line. Next would be removal of asbestos and lead paint. Then basic contractor lighting for interior light. Next modern plumbing and electric. Stabilizing this way would allow new mixed use for the building where it could be leased or rented to many different individuals, doctors, psychiatric specialists,lawyers, light retail, artist and photographers. It could be done using green material and a green modern heating and cooling physical plant. It would have to be done that way to make it viable for the next hundred years. If Europe can do it we can. It should be saved.

I grew up on Bourne Street in the 60's and My mom worked at the Odd Fellows. I used to walk over and meet her everyday after work. She like working with the patients there. I have sat out on their huge lawn many times in the front, so peaceful on a summer day. It is old and a eyesore now, but will hate to see it go. Its a childhood memory and seems they are all going away in Worcester.

I attended the church that had its home here from the time they moved in until around 2003-2004. Records found in the basement may have been church records--I know that the church stored a LOT in the basement, often to their detriment (cue memories of cleaning out exploding sodas one summer). The main building mostly served to house the church offices on the second floor (along with some Sunday school rooms), and then some storage for outreach ministries on the third floor. The fourth floor wasn't used at all and was extremely eerie to visit (and fairly dangerous as well). Anywhere above the third floor, you were basically guaranteed to run into bats and relics left over from the building's days belonging to the Oddfellows (e.g., thrones, scepters, other things used for ceremonies presumably). The first floor on the main building also had two reception areas right off the front entrance; one was turned into a youth group center with a pool table while the other had a baptismal installed. The wing on the far right was mostly used for Sunday school, though the third floor remained entirely untouched and had the same eeriness to it that the fourth floor had in the main building. The church sanctuary (which I believe could seat 500-800 people or so) was built in the very early 90s, right before we moved in, and had a sort of entry way just behind it, facing the current Oddfellows nursing home. There was also a sizable apartment on the far left of the main building that served to house the groundskeeper/maintenance person for the church at various times. It had the most gorgeous sunroom and space for a family of 3-4, depending. And in conclusion: it's very weird to drive down 190 and not see the building looming in the hills above.