Large Turnout for Walk Around Medfield State Hospital

More than 60 people attended the Historic District Commission's walk through the former Medfield State Hospital on Wednesday evening. 

The purpose of the walk was for the Historic District Commission to make a visual assessment of the 23 buildings that make up the core campus of the property and make a suggestion to the town as to what buildings could be salvageable and should be evaluated to be kept on the property. 

"There are so many buildings here that you can't save them all so the idea is to save the core," said Historic District Commission Chairman Mike Taylor who led the building-by-building tour. 

A current cost analysis will help determine what the costs and liability would be to whomever buys the property, whether it's the town or a developer.  

While walking the property, Taylor referred to a detailed survey catalog that was done of the buildings 12 years ago. At that time, some of the buildings on the campus were still in use but many were not.

The 2001 report suggested that work had to be done to the buildings in the next two or three years to avoid further disrepair; however, no work was done, the hospital has since closed, and the state owns the property. 

"Nothing's been done in the last 12 or 13 years so it's a serious issue," HDC member Jim Rohnstock told the group. 

It was determined that the buildings in the worse shape were the former dormitories, some buildings were clearly unsafe (many are condemned), and others appeared to be in good shape architecturally and structurally. 

The HDC took their information back to Town Hall and discussed the results. 

Taylor said that everyone is interested in saving the Chapel on the property but no other buildings in the center of the quadrangle.