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"We had three boys and five girls and they literally thought they owned the place." Ann Bishop came to Muscatatuck in September of 1954. She started as a head nurse, became assistant director of nursing, and then was a module director/mental health…

“One of the first things that she said was ‘I want a lawyer.’” Patty Cook recounts her experience with a teenager who had severe cerebral palsy and had been given a communication device for the first time. Patty was first hired at Muscatatuck State…

Building No. 22 was built around 1940 to house women working as attendants at Muscatatuck State School, as the institution became known in 1941. (Prior to that year, it was known as the Indiana Farm Colony for Feeble-Minded Youth.) Male and female…

Building No. 12 was constructed in 1940 at a cost of $31,644. It remained in use as an administration building for Muscatatuck State Developmental Center until the Center's closure in 2005. The institution, located in Butlerville, Indiana, became…

This photo of the entrance to Muscatatuck State Developmental Center was taken in 2005. That was the same year the institution closed, the last person living at Muscatatuck having been placed into a community residence on April 22, 2005. The Center…

“I lost my vision at-- I was 26 months old. I was struck by lightning.” When it was time to go to school, Pauline Ulrey’s ophthalmologist did not want her to go to the Indiana School for the Blind. “I don’t know his line of reasoning, but that was…

“It was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.” In the 1970s, Bonnie Smith was having difficulties providing care at home for her adolescent son Brooks. After seeking assistance, it was determined Brooks would go to Indiana's Madison State Hospital.…

John Dickerson, retired Executive Director of The Arc of Indiana, explains that after World War II, parents across the country began to think differently about the future of their children with disabilities. In 1951, there was a national meeting of…

“Well, they stayed at home, okay, the individuals stayed home.” Mrs. Leona Receveur wished her daughter, who had a disability, could attend school. When Mrs. Receveur tried to find a school for her daughter, she was told to start her own school. Mrs.…

“It was wonderful because he felt like he was going to school.” When Bonnie Smith’s family moved to Bloomington, Indiana in the 1960s, a minister from the First United Methodist Church knocked on her door one day informing Bonnie he had found a…