Today I decided to take a ride down to the now abandoned Fernald State School in Waltham, MA. I knew exactly where this place was, as I used to deliver medications here back in 2000 when I worked for the State Pharmacy in Tewksbury, MA. It was a blisteringly (Is that a word?) hot day, I should have planned better. I was only able to cover about half the campus before I felt ill and over-heated. I was covered in sweat. Next time I will get the second half.
Hey, I've been here before..... the entrance sign off Trapelo Rd.
This place is clearly a no trespassing property, as evidenced by the many signs when you drive through.
When you pull in, the first building you see is the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center. I remember going in there, but not quite sure why, maybe to ask directions. I think it is just on the same property and doesn't have had anything to do with Fernald. If your interested in this site, you can get more information here:
I drove further up the main road and passed this gate thing, feeling like I was about to get in trouble......
At the sign of the first building, I parked across from it. Probably not the best place, I don't know how I didn't get approached, oh yeah, now I remember, there was nobody around. I didn't see any humans. What I did notice was in the trees to the left of my car, behind that lamp post, was an owl, crow, or some type of bird almost yelling, very loudly. It was very distinct, enough so that I couldn't help but think it was some sign or something. Lost souls perhaps ?
This is the Administration Building. The clock is forever stopped at 8:00.
From here I got out to take a better picture of the grounds sign.
After taking a pic of the sign, I started walking down the street. There was a newer building that had cars parked in front, 1 being a police van, and another a grounds patrol car. I just walked right by them. The building they were at looked like a still-in-use senior center. You can see some of the cars off in the distance in the pic below.
I took a right so I would be out of view in case anyone was heading back to their cars. Look here.... a loading dock. Could this be the one I backed down to all those years ago in that big huge box truck ? I honestly can't say. Everything looks so different and over-grown since I was last here.
At this point, I just kept walking, not sure where I'd end up.
It was really starting to get hot.
Here, I had come around the corner of one of the buildings and came upon their church.
It had a very interesting name.........
"The Chapel of the Holy Innocents".
And just beyond that, I spotted the "Cottages". I remember these !!
The "Cottages" were several residential buildings where the patients were housed. They all looked similar, and were kind of "U" shaped.
"Lab Pack Room"
I clearly remember being in the middle of these "U" shapes, to deliver medication carts and pick up the returns.
After coming around the corner of one of the buildings, I saw a door open !! There were two open actually, but this one was closer to the main road I was walking. I thought for a few seconds, listened for humans, and decided to go for it.
Climbing through these bushes to get to the doorway..... this happened.
Right away you could see broken light pieces all over the floor......
I looked to the right. Completely empty.
So I went a little bit further....... still empty aside from those broken light pieces, and some mold starting to show on the walls.
I was too scared of getting in trouble to explore further, so I turned around and walked out. ** This is the part where I mention how, if I wasn't alone I probably would have done much more exploring. Hint hint. ** I noticed on all the Cottages, someone spray-painted "Ramco Demo", which leads me to believe these will be demolished soon.
Here I got the the end of the "Cottages" and this is where I recognized driving through to do my deliveries. I must have entered a different way back then.
Heading back to my car I walked through a field and saw this plaque. It's a memorial but as I was reaching to take a clear shot, a car drove up to my left and I continued walking.
Finally, steps from nowhere, heading to nowhere. I took them up the hill, past the gate and back to my car. I realized I had only seen about half of the place.
I will definitely go back to finish the other half, hopefully before anything gets torn down. If I can possibly get some input from a co-worker at the time who also did more deliveries than me, and probably remembers more, that would be super awesome. Rachel, I hope you reach out to me. You are the only person in the world I know of that can help me out with filling in the blanks.
I still have so much more to research about the history of this place. I wish I had been interested in learning more while most of these abandoned institutions in MA were still active. I filled medications and delivered to many places like this.
Here is the almost complete list of hospitals we filled for each weekday when I worked at Tewksbury State Hospital pharmacy:
Monday: Wrentham, Taunton, Westboro
Tuesday: Monson, Worcester, Western
Wednesday: Fernald, Mass Hospital School, ?
Thursday: Tewksbury, Lindemann, Fuller
Friday: Templeton, Hogan, Bridgewater
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you'd like to learn more about the Fernald State School, you can here:
Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center
Edit: I spoke to Rachel, and she came up with some addition that we filled, they are in italics above.
Edit: I spoke to Rachel, and she came up with some addition that we filled, they are in italics above.
