Some worried new development at Fernald Center in Waltham ignores its dark past
WALTHAM - Nestled in Waltham lies 200 acres of land. The buildings may be deserted, but the memories of what happened remain fresh.
It is the sprawling grounds of the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center. The defunct and controversial campus is the oldest institution to serve people with developmental disabilities. Now the city wants to turn part the grounds into an entertainment center, and some residents aren't happy with the plan.
"My dad worked there. He worked there for about two years in the late 70s. He continued to work in the field of development disabilities," explained Josh Kastorf, a Waltham resident., "He did not have a memory of it being good times. He remembers it pervasive violent institution. In the early 20th century, there were non-consensual experiments done there on children. The idea was to get people with disabilities out of the community so they couldn't reproduce."
After his father left the institution, Kastorf's parents worked to create special housing that would allow people to leave the institutions.
Eventually the center shut down, and the city bought the land in 2014. It's laid dormant ever since. The city spends $25,000 a year just to police the grounds. Portions of the buildings are now damaged, and no one is allowed on the property.
"Kids love to get into them, probably adults too," explained Diana Young, the former chair of the Waltham Community Preservation Committee. She has toured the grounds in the past. "As we drove through, every window I saw was broken."
Young was on the Community Conservation Committee when the property was purchased using community preservation funding. By law, the city must put restrictions on the land to keep it for recreational or historic use. An organization must be appointed to hold them to the restrictions, but so far that hasn't been done. It must be completed before any work can be done on the portion of the land that was purchased with this type of funding.
"The statute does not have a term as to when you have to get it done," said Young.
On Monday, the City Council approved loan funding for a plan to turn part of the grounds into a $9.5 million dollar sprawling recreation zone with parks, amenities and a moving train.
"That plan came out in the middle of the summer at a time when the recreation board did not normally meet. For that meeting they didn't do proper notice, but they cured it later," said Young.
"Two years ago, there was a [public] input session where we were told we could only talk about the recreational amenities. We couldn't give feedback on anything else," explained Krastorf. "Almost everybody broke that rule and gave feedback on whether it was appropriate."
Some residents wanted to see a memorial or a museum to remind people of the history. Krastorf says there was a sense in the community that there wasn't enough being done to acknowledge what happened, but instead that it was being covered with recreation attractions for children on land with a history of treating children poorly.
When the engineering team produced renderings of the potential project plans, it did have a universal park for able-bodied and disabled children, but only a small part showed a memorial. There is no visual rendering of the memorial on the map, but there are for many other attractions.
"Mostly what people wanted to see was a process," said Krastorf.
"Take a plan, and then take it to the public, that's what we pushed for for years," said Young.
Over the last two days, WBZ TV reached out to Mayor Jeannette McCarthy's office for comment, but have yet to get an answer.