OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
SOCIAL ISSUES
PLANNING PROCESSES
TESTIMONIES

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OWNERSHIP:
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts owns the majority of this land; the Department of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) has authority over it for the State; and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) is running some aspects of the planning process for the redevelopment of the land.

The Massachusetts Audubon Society owns the land on which the Boston Nature Center has been established in the western campus of the former hospital. This land includes the Clark-Cooper Community Gardens.

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CONDITIONS:
The former Boston State Hospital is the largest parcel of developable property in the City of Boston. Morton Street divides the 175-acre site into what are known as an east and a west campus. The west campus is about 124 acres, 67 of which form the Boston Nature Center and include vegetated wetlands. The east campus is 36 acres, about nine of which form a wetland and a wetland buffer area. Both campuses are encircled with wrought iron fencing, some of which is very new and in excellent condition, but much of which is broken, with large gaps that encourage illegal dumping. The Canterbury Brook -- a tributary of the Stony Brook -- runs through both parts of the site.

In 2004, current uses of the site include the Boston Nature Center, the extensive Clark-Cooper Community Gardens, and the City Composting facility. The northern most section of the east campus is used by the Department of Youth Services for the Metropolitan Youth Center.

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CONTEXT:
For more than 20 years, most of the Boston State Hospital property has been considered a "no-man's land" that detracts from the health and stability of communities in the Heart of the City. Important exceptions are the Clark-Cooper Community Garden, which has been tended by local gardeners since 1968, and the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which established the Boston Nature Center in 1996.

Many local organizations are deeply involved in and affected by planning for the Boston State Hospital site, including Lena Park Community Development Corporation (CDC), the Massachusetts Audubon Society, St. Michaels Cemetery, and nearby schools such as Haley Elementary. A range of individual community members have also dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy into planning for the site. These organizations and individuals recognize that the redevelopment of the site will have an enormous impact on the neighborhood as a whole. A revitalized site would have the potential to provide more jobs for residents, leverage higher quality public transportation in the area, facilitate the building of more housing, and increase property values and quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The State Hospital site is bordered by four large parcels of partly developed land, parkland, and cemetery land. These parcels are Franklin Park, Mt. Hope Cemetery, St. Michaels Cemetery, and a plot of Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) land that is sometimes referred to as the Canterbury II urban wild.

Residential Harvard Street forms the entire western border of the State Hospital site, which includes part of Dorchester and part of Mattapan. The stability of these border communities is deeply affected by the State Hospital property. According to one Mattapan resident, when the State Hospital buildings were razed in the late 1990s the development had a distinctly positive effect on the Harvard Street neighborhoods.

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HISTORY:

1839 - Boston Lunatic Hospital opens in South Boston.

1881 - Part of the Hospital is transferred to Austin Farm in Dorchester.

1898 - Boston Lunatic Hospital completes the move to Austin and Pierce farms in Dorchester and is renamed the Boston Insane Hospital.

1908 - City of Boston sells the hospital (153 acres) to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1 million. The hospital is renamed the Boston State Hospital.

1951 - The population of the hospital is 3,100 people (30% more than the facility was intended to accommodate).

1960s - Deinstitutionalization reduces the Boston State Hospital population to fewer than 400 people.

1968 - Families in the Mattapan and Dorchester community begin growing their produce on the old planting fields of the Hospital along American Legion Highway.

1979 - Governor Edward J. King proposes to dispose of the hospital site by executive order.

1980 - The Hospital is closed when the power plant shuts down. There are proposals to build Roxbury Community College at the site.

1983 - The first public meetings are held on hospital grounds to voice community concerns about reuse of the Boston State Hospital site.

1985 - The Massachusetts Division of Capital Planning and Operations (DCPO) and the Executive Office of
Environmental Affairs (EOEA) convene the first Boston State Hospital Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to advise the state on development guidelines and review the environmental impacts of possible uses for the land.

June 1985 - The CAC adopts guideline recommendations for the redevelopment of the Boston State Hospital site. The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health declares 125 acres of the Boston State Hospital property surplus to its needs and retains 49.5 acres for current and potential uses.

1993 - A Master Plan for the Boston State Hospital is completed by state officials, the CAC, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Franklin Place Associates among others.

1995 - The Massachusetts Audubon Society completes a study on the social, physical, and institutional landscape of the site and its surroundings.

1996 - With unanimous support from the CAC, the Massachusetts Audubon Society purchases 68 acres of the West Campus of the former hospital site to build the Boston Nature Center.

1997 - Most of the hospital buildings are demolished, at a cost of $10.7 million.

2000 - Legislation is passed granting permission for the University of Massachusetts Medical School to develop 20 acres of the site for a laboratory.

2001 - General contractor Charter Environmental Inc. begins work on the East Campus to ready it for a housing development, consistent with the plan that had been established for the area by the CAC in 1985.

2002 - Clearing and development work on the East Campus of the site is halted, leaving bare ground at the site while planners at the city, state, and community level continue to debate a variety of development possibilities.

2003 - Construction commenced on Harvard Commons housing development project and the Massachusetts Biologics Laboratory vaccine production facility. City of Boston has also set aside 20 acres of land for a new Mattapan high school.

The Boston State Hospital site was a complex of care facilities related to mental health from the 1700s until the 1970s. Early maps of the area label it as the "Lunatic Asylum." In the late 1700s, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts subscribed to a treatment method for the mentally ill that relied on a rural or semi-rural physical setting to foster a sense of tranquility within patients. Part of this vision related to agricultural work as therapy. Even the first year the hospital was open, it was self-sufficient in terms of vegetable and dairy production. Natural ecosystems of the hospital property were preserved for the benefit of patients. This history has had repercussions for the Boston State Hospital site that are still felt today. For example, because the marshlands on the hospital property were never drained, but were preserved as part of the natural history of the area, the wetlands persist today and are showcased at the Boston Nature Center. The history of agriculture at the Boston State Hospital has been carried on by urban gardeners from Mattapan and Dorchester (Heath, R, "The Great Meadows of Canterbury: Boston State Hospital Urban Wilds,"  1993).

Although the wetlands remained untouched, the hospital continued to expand, and more buildings were built to accommodate the growing need for services in Boston. In the 1930s, the site was divided up into a department for men in the southwest (West Campus) and a department for women in the northeast (East Campus). Ultimately, 29 hospital buildings existed on the grounds.

Although the hospital did not officially close down until 1980, many of the buildings on both Campuses have been vacant since the late 1970s. Most of the buildings that made up the Boston State Hospital site were demolished beginning in 1997 at a cost of $10.7 million, leaving only a few buildings still standing.

Between 1985 and 2002, the State, the CAC, potential developers, local organizations, and more recently the City have made plans for the redevelopment of the site. These are described in more detail below.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
The Canterbury Brook:
The Canterbury Brook, which is contaminated with high lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) levels, runs through both the east and west campuses of the State Hospital site. There is a designated wetland area that restricts development within a 100-foot buffer zone parallel to Morton Street in the east campus. Some individuals are concerned that the City Compost facility may be contributing to the contamination of the Canterbury Brook, but no testing has been done to affirm or allay this concern.

Although Stephen Hines, former head of the Division of Capital Asset Management, indicated that all known environmental hazards had been remediated by the state in 2000, the Canterbury Brook is still contaminated in 2003 ("Missing Pieces in Mattapan,"The Boston Globe,  Nov. 30, 2002).

Illegal dumping:
Parts of the Boston State Hospital site have been used as dumping grounds, particularly those areas where there are gaps in the fencing and in the west campus.

Land contamination:
Parts of the Boston State Hospital land were also contaminated between 30 to 50 years ago. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is responsible for the removal of all unwanted hazardous wastes within the Boston State Hospital site. The State has carried out some environmental remediation and in 2000 claimed that all the site was clear of all environmental hazards ("Missing Pieces in Mattapan,"The Boston Globe.,  Nov. 30, 2002).

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DESIGN ISSUES:
Design issues in the site are numerous and are dealt with in other sections of the Heart of the City database in detail. In the summer of 2002, the fences around both sections of the site were broken and in poor condition in many places. The western campus in particular has forlorn roads blocked with unsightly and uninviting cement blocks, as well as a lack of appropriate signage for the Boston Nature Center. The unused system of roads and parking areas in the western campus contributes to the forlorn character of the site.

One abandoned building near the center of the western campus of the site is on the verge of collapse and is partially fenced in. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is responsible for the removal of all unwanted buildings and structures from the site.

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SOCIAL ISSUES:
Over the years, the vast, underutilized space has attracted at least a few incidences of high-profile illegal activities, in particular the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and her unborn child, which was committed on the Boston State Hospital site in 2000. The perception that this area is a dangerous, crime-ridden "no-man's land" has persisted. One undercover police officer who patrols the Canterbury parcel owned by the MDC affirmed the reputation of the area as dangerous and scarcely populated.

The perception of crime does not, however, match up with the actual incidence of crime. According to the Boston Police Department, between 1999 and the first half of 2002, there were more violent crimes and property crimes in and around the Arnold Arboretum than there were in and around the Boston State Hospital site (Reporting areas 565, 652, 655, and 666).

According to Gary Clayton, vice-president of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, decreasing crime is not part of the mission of the organization, but the personal security of staff and visitors at the Nature Center is nevertheless important to Mass Audubon. The Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) has funded a security service for the western campus of the Boston State Hospital site. The main crimes that the guards address relate to illegal dumping. Guards reported that resident inmates at the former Pre-Release Center never created a problem in the area.

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PLANNING PROCESSES:
Process by Spring 2003:
Harvard Commons affordable housing:
On May 22, 2003, State and City officials announced groundbreaking on the Harvard Commons project. The project, which will be carried out by Cruz Development Corporation, is to be completed in three phases. Phase one will produce 45 affordable housing units, including units for those whose annual income is at or below 60 percent of Boston's median income. It will also provide limited equity cooperative housing. In addition, homeless families and clients of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health will be designated a portion of the units. In the last two phases of the project, 54 three- and four-bedroom, single-family homes will be constructed ("Romney, Menino announce new affordable housing," Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development Press Release, May 22, 2003).

State laboratory:
The Massachusetts Biologics Laboratory facility, owned by the State, recently commenced construction on a new vaccine production facility ("Romney, Menino announce new affordable housing," Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development Press Release, May 22, 2003). The facility will be developed by the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and will cover 20 acres of the site. Total cost of development is estimated to be between $60 and $70 million, and the UMass is obligated to hire a certain number of local residents to work at the new facility.

The 80,000-square-foot laboratory, which is expected to open in the summer of 2005, would allow the state to double the vaccine and drug output of the current production facility in Jamaica Plain. The state expects to at least break even from the sale of vaccines and drugs, while providing 130 permanent jobs ranging from scientists with doctoral degrees to security guards.

Other areas: 
On February 12, 2004, a decision was made on how to develop the remaining 55 acres of the site. The State decided to strike a compromise between the two submitted proposals, one from the Lena Park Community Development Corporation and the other from the Stonybrook Development Corporation. Lena Park will go ahead with previously approved plans to develop 35 acres of the land and Stonybrook will develop the 20 acres that before had been set aside for a new high school.

As of December 2005, City Councilor Charles Yancey is still petitioning for a new high school to be built on the site in an effort to overturn Mayor Menino’s move to build a housing development. Yancey plans to approach the City Council, with more than 3,000 signatures in hand, and request a loan order to start building a school on the property in July 2005. ('3,000 Back Notion of School on Long-Vacant Hospital Site.” The Boston Globe, December 26, 2005). According to Owen Toney, parent organizer for the Boston branch of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the 20-acre site is perhaps the last parcel of land in the city where Boston could still build a high school (Matt Gunderson, "Where Houses Slated, School Dreams Yancey Pushes for New Facility," The Boston Globe, Sept. 12, 2004).
Both groups proposed a mix of residential housing, retail, and support services for the mentally ill. Lena Park and developer Jerome Rappaport proposed the $90 million Olmstead Green plan, which envisioned 300 condominiums and apartments, a jobs-training center, playing fields, tennis courts, restaurant, and "country store." Under the new decision, Rappaport will build 200 townhouses, 100 apartments, a restaurant, produce market, Audubon Society nature center and other facilities on the 35 acres.

The $65 million second proposal by the church-backed Stony Brook LLC called for a combination of commercial space, 192 houses, and 63 apartments. Now, Stony Brook hopes to build almost all of its projected homes on its 20 acres, as well as develop a mix of market-rate and affordable housing (Jerry Kronenberg, "Rivals Make Mattapan Site Deal," The Boston Herald, February, 13, 2004).

History of the process:
Planning processes for the redevelopment of the Boston State Hospital site began in 1983. A Boston State Hospital Citizen Advisory Group (CAC) for the redevelopment planning process was formed in 1985. Eighteen years later, a version of this group continues to be a major player in decision-making.

In 1985, when the first CAC established development guidelines for the site, they completed a survey of the surrounding community to discern what people would like to have at the site. They found that, at that time, 76.1% wanted jobs, 63.4% wanted moderately priced housing, 48% wanted commercial uses, 38% wanted parks and recreational space, 35% wanted gardens, 31% wanted office space, and 31% wanted light industry. The original CAC recommended that the Clark-Cooper Community Gardens remain, that environmentally sensitive areas of the west campus (wetlands to the north and forest to the south) be protected, that housing be established on the entire Eastern Campus of the site, and that the center of the West Campus be used for a variety of purposes. At this point, some of the land was still being retained by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health ("Boston State Hospital: critical choices ahead," 1985).

Momentum from this first planning process slowed and the State Hospital site continued to languish almost completely unaltered for more than ten years despite planning processes that occurred through much of this period. During these years, the Commonwealth and the CAC cultivated partnerships with potential developers. Franklin Place was designated as a developer for a 47-acre section of the West Campus and a 15-acre section of the East Campus. Lena Park Community Development Corporation was to provide job training resources and social programs to equip residents of the surrounding communities for jobs in the new development. The Massachusetts Audubon Society expressed interest in developing a Wildlife Sanctuary on the property. This conglomeration of people pulled together to create a master plan for the site in 1993.

In 1996, the Massachusetts Audubon Society received permission to purchase the land and in 1997 most of the demolition work took place. Progress towards redevelopment then stalled once more. Of the conglomeration that pulled together the master plan, only Mass Audubon successfully implemented its plans.

Subsequently, David Perini, head of the state's Division of Capital Asset Management, gave the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) authorization to assume responsibility for creating a master plan for the site. The BRA and DCAMM hired two planning consultants to facilitate the planning process, along with the Citizen Advisory Group and the State.

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TESTIMONIES:
The following quotes are from members of the original Community Advisory Committee for the redevelopment of the Boston State Hospital site from 1985. These thoughts are still appropo today.

"[The work of the CAC] is one of the brightest and most elaborate processes in the recent history of the community" (Louis Elisa in 1985. Elisa was at that time vice-president of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association).

"It rubs me the wrong way to see the land go unused. Especially when people are looking for jobs and a good place to live" (Lenzer Evans in 1985. Evans was at that time vice-president of Mattapan Square Board of Trade and member of the CAC).

"There's a lot of property out there. And what happens to it will spell success or failure for neighborhood revitalization" (Charlotte Kahn in 1985. Kahn was at that time the Director of Boston Urban Gardeners).

"You can have jobs with a capital J and you can have jobs with a small J. What I want to see there are well-paying jobs with a future" (Richard Heath in 1985).

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