About Us > History
Our History
The 19th century was a period of great change for the United States. A civil war ravaged the nation, waves of immigrants flocked to our major cities, fleeing the hardships of their native lands, and the industrial revolution forever changed the life of the American worker. As Boston roared into the 20th century, the city faced many challenges which accompanied this great population influx and burgeoning industrial life. Young Bostonians often struggled to survive, both physically and emotionally, in this new community. Through the remarkable insight of one man, The Honorable Harvey Humphrey Baker, many of the troubled youth of Boston were offered the support they so desperately needed.
Judge
Baker was the first judge of Boston’s Juvenile Court. Having seen
many delinquent children come before his bench, he firmly believed that
there was more to a child’s behavior that just being “a troublemaker.”
Judge Baker’s views on children reflected changes that were occurring
on a wider scale. The first modern theories on child development were being
formed at this time, the first ideas to take an interest in children as
social beings. Judge Baker helped transform the usual approach to juvenile
justice, advocating a system based on understanding and treatment, rather
than punishment and incarceration.
Following Judge Baker’s death in 1915, his successor on the court, Judge Frederick P. Cabot, an avid supporter of the treatment of troubled children and often referred to as “the children’s judge,” established the Judge Baker Foundation in 1917 and served as its first President. To lead the efforts of this new institution, the newly-formed board of trustees of the Foundation persuaded Dr. William Healy, renowned for his scientific study of delinquency and his work with court-involved youngsters, to leave his work in Chicago and become the Foundation’s first director. Dr. Healy was joined in his efforts by Dr. Augusta Bronner, herself a renowned researcher and clinician. Dr. Bronner became co-director of Judge Baker in 1928.
In the 1920s and 30s, Judge Baker’s service and research programs, led by Drs. Healy and Bronner, helped to give the field of child psychiatry a new impetus through the creation of sound scientific knowledge about troubled youngsters and the subsequent steps to help them grow as good citizens. In 1930, the Baker’s name was changed to Judge Baker Guidance Center. By this time, the Center had grown to be more than just an adjunct to the court and was providing services to children referred by child welfare organizations and families.
The 1940’s brought new leadership to Judge Baker Guidance Center with the appointment of Dr. George E. Gardner as director of the Center. Dr. Gardner was a pediatrician/psychiatrist who also served as the first clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the first psychiatrist-in-chief at Children’s Hospital Boston. As the citizens of Boston and its surrounding communities faced the hardships of World War II, the Baker took a significant leap forward by broadening both inpatient and outpatient services for children and educational programs for parents and clinicians.
Under the leadership of Dr. Gardner, the Baker launched professional training projects and gradually expanded its range of clinical services to meet changing societal needs. So too, new public/private partnerships enhanced the support of the Center’s services. At the same time, the Judge Baker was establishing strong new research and training collaborations with Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. This time period also marked the establishment of the Manville School, a special setting for children who could not be educated in community schools because their severe learning disabilities were complicated by serious emotional or behavioral problems. The school was named in honor of Hiram E. Manville, Jr., whose foundation provided the funding for the construction of a new building to house Judge Baker Guidance Center and the Manville School.
The 1970s and the early 1980s brought with them new problems for youth. Increasing numbers of children in the nation’s cities were dropping out of school and being drawn into lives of crime and violence. Drug abuse and teen pregnancy were also on the rise.
Under the leadership of Dr. Julius Richmond, a co-founder of the Head Start Program and former United States Surgeon General, and Dr. Stanley Walzer, the Center re-cast its mission to address issues of risk and resilience. The Center once again changed its name, this time to Judge Baker Children’s Center, reflecting the expansion of its mission to now include broader social programs focused on early childhood services that aimed to develop positive mental health in children.
Over the most recent decade, under the direction of Dr. Stuart Hauser, Judge Baker has become a sophisticated center committed to state-of-the-art research and training and dedicated to working with community-based partners to develop and implement early intervention services designed to help prevent children from succumbing to an increasingly stressful, violent urban environment. With the visionary new leadership of Dr. John Weisz, a new state-of-the-art facility in Mission Hill, and a number of innovative projects and programs in the works, Judge Baker has begun a new era of success – building upon 89 years of service to children and families.