I've become obsessed with the Fernald Center and the Gabler Children's School in Waltham. They are across the street from each other on Trapelo Road. The Gabler School was once part of the Metropolitan State Hospital, which was demolished some years ago and made into beautiful high-end condos. The only buildings remaining to THAT complex is the Gabler school, which was a school for juvenile delinquents, and the William McLaughin Building, both abandoned and overgrown.
Across the street, at 200 Trapelo Road, is the Fernald Center, made up of some 72 buildings on 186 acres. The buildings are old - built in 1888. Some are still used for tenants (about 150, average age 59), and the offices of the Department of Mental Retardation. Some are abandoned and thought to be haunted. At it's peak, there were 2,500 people confined there, most of them what they thought were "feeble-minded" boys. I fix the copiers in about three or four of the buildings that are used. I'm in awe when I go there.
Both these complexes have a dark history, as back then, the idea was to hide developmentally disabled people. Now we mainstream them. At the Fernald school, there were experiments done unbeknownst to the boys there on nuclear medicine. Some of these boys, now in their 60's were meagerly compensated for this. There is a documentary, which I haven't seen, but occasionally shown on PBS, called "Front Wards, Back Wards" and a book called "The State Boys Rebellion" which I've ordered from Amazon that hasn't arrived yet, about the Fernald.
Yesterday, I fixed the copier at the Marquart Nursing Building on the Fernald Complex. When I was done, I walked over to Waverly Hall, which is one of the abandoned buildings. It is supposedly haunted - people hear a woman screaming. Since this has become a favorite "haunt" of teenagers, they have now fenced around it so you cannot get to the building, but inside the fence it is so overgrown. I'm going back there soon, to at least take pictures of the outside.
The Fernald Complex belongs to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and they want to tear it down and probably build some Mall and/or shopping center. The family of the remaining tenants are fighting it every inch of the way, since the tenants have been there their entire life and know no other way. So it remains standing. From what I understand from some Native Walthamians, when the state DOES close it, first dibs goes to the city of Waltham, and they intend to buy it and keep most of the buildings up, as they were designed by some decent architects and Waltham respects old buildings.
When the Metro State Hospital closed, back in 1992, (the complex across the street from Fernald), half was in Lexington and half in Waltham. The town of Lexington tore down their building (the larger of the two) and built those condo complexes, and Waltham kept their buildings up (Gabler and McLaughlin buildings). They still stand. Now I LOVE the city of Waltham - they are respecting history and want to preserve it. These buildings, and the Fernald complex, are GORGEOUS old buildings, and should be respected.
I'm going to write the Mayor of Waltham a letter, thanking her for keeping history. The part of Metro State Hospital that Lexington tore down and built the condos on has a dark history, too. The criminally insane lived there, under awful conditions (so I've read), complete with one patient murdering another and cutting her up and burying her remains around the complex. I wonder if the tenants of the Lexington Avalon Condo complex built on those grounds see any evidence of spirits.
So, those are my thoughts for now. I am posting some pictures I took of the outside of the Gabler School and the McLaughlin Building. Please look at them. And I will post the pics of the Fernald Complex when I take them next week sometime.
If you have any information on the history of these buildings/complexes, I would LOVE to hear it.
