The Girls and Boys of Belchertown: A Social History of the Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded

8. Ghosts and Graveyards

[ 128 ] chapter 8 Ghosts and Graveyards z AneeriequietsettledovertheformerBelchertownStateSchool.Boarded-up buildings stood abandoned. Thick weeds, brush, and small trees sprouted in the fertile soil, overgrowing pathways and lawns. Disrepair and decay spread. The occasional trespasser reported odd things happening: sharp fluctuations of temperature, an intense odor of flowers where none grew, lights flickering in the tunnels though the power was off, mirrors vibrating , running footsteps, random cries and moans. Some called it a haunted place.1 What could—or should—be done with the former state school? As we saw in chapter 7, as far back as 1979 the town, anticipating the eventual contraction or shutdown of the school, had established a reuse committee to study alternatives.2 At a public meeting in 1991, seventy possibilities were put on the table.3 Now the time was at hand. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts proposed converting the main campus to a 1,150-inmate medium-security prison. Some 350–575 new jobs would be created and local residents would be given preference in hiring. The state would also give the town four parcels of land, two buildings, and $10 million for capital projects as compensation. Thetownwastempted.TheselectmenvisitednearbyprisonsinGardner and Shirley to assess the impact and found that “they did not have a negative impact on the community as a whole.” Still, there were reservations: the new prison would be relatively close to the center of town; the sixteenfoot -high fences with razor-wire coil seemed “intimidating”; prison lights would light up the night sky forever. Unsaid but no doubt deeply felt, the town had also, in a sense, been in the business of incarceration since 1922; ghosts and graveyards [ 129 ] there was a certain fatigue. On June 22, 1992, in the largest turnout anyone could remember (71 percent), the town’s voters emphatically rejected the proposed prison, by a vote of 2,675 to 1,067.4 Whatever happened to the former state school, it would not again be a place of confinement. Weapons of modern development theory were deployed in an effort to convert the abandoned facility into a productive town asset. Two entities, the Belchertown Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (BEDIC) and the Industrial Development Finance Authority, were established to develop,implement,andfinanceaneconomicdevelopmentplan.5 Thetown itself was designated an Economic Target Area under the state’s Economic DevelopmentIncentiveProgram,andtheschoolpropertywasdesignatedan Economic Opportunity Area for twenty years, making tax incentives available to prospective businesses. As with the Board of Trade a century before, the goal was to increase town revenue and create new jobs. The New England Small Farm Institute (NESFI), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote small farm development, leased 416 acres of what had been the school farm. It renamed the leasehold Lampson Brook Agricultural Reserve (later called Lampson Brook Farmstead) and sublet smaller parcels to a number of independent small farm businesses. These enterprises have produced and sold a variety of farm products over the years, including berries, organic vegetables, herbs, annual and perennial plants, fresh and dried flowers, grains and hay, eggs, honey, cordwood , beef feeder calves, and breeding pigs. NESFI also subleases land to the Belchertown Community Garden, which provides small plots for gardening to families in the Belchertown area.6 The more vexing challenge was what to do with the former school’s nonfarm acreage, including the main campus land and buildings. Five of thebuildings(EandF,TadgellNursery,andNurseries1and2)werelocated on a twenty-acre parcel at the edge of the campus known as Parcel A. In the early 1990s, before the state school closed, the town leased Buildings E and F for use as elementary school classrooms. It leased Tadgell for the same purpose after the school closed. Then, in the mid ’90s, it bought the parcel outright.7 There the town developed, in addition to the elementary school, a new middle school, teen center, senior center, police station , public-access cable TV center, American Legion facility, indoor pool, and playing fields. But the bulk of the nonfarm acreage (approximately 263 acres, known as Parcels B, D, and E) was still owned by the state and remained undeveloped. The largest parcel, B, included thirty structures— the core of the former campus. [ 130 ] chapter 8 In 2002, BEDIC purchased the three parcels for $10.8 It resold Parcel E, containing 43.7 acres, to a developer for an office park.9 It leased Parcel D, containing 52.7 acres (including...