Lucy Helen Hospital
If you were born in Fitchburg between 1922-1954, more
than likely, you came into the world at the Lucy Helen
Hospital. The three-story brick mansion at 879 Main Street
was originally built about 1870 by a wool manufacturer
named Abial Towne. His daughter, Sarah Towne married
Charles Billings, treasurer of Fitchburg Savings Bank, and
they made their home there for many years. The Billings
would eventually sell it to John Sherriff, owner of Sherriff
Woolen Mills. In 1921, Sherriff sold it to Mrs. Fay Crocker
for a sum of $12,550.00.
A year later, in 1922, Mrs. Crocker opened the home as a
private maternity hospital. She named it after her mother,
Lucy Bigelow and her husband Charles T. Crocker’s mother,
Helen. The Lucy Helen Hospital operated privately and
successfully for five years until Mrs. Crocker generously
donated its buildings and grounds to Burbank Hospital
under the conditions that it would only be used as a hospital
and it would serve the women of Fitchburg.
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