A grave error: Headstones of patients toppled by state workers

WALTHAM -- State workers have trampled a pauper's graveyard next to two area state hospitals in what one heartbroken local man says is an insult to those who died in the wards.

The graves, all simple stones half-buried in the grass, mark the final resting place for 350 patients who lived at Fernald or Metropolitan State Hospital 30 years ago and more.

Now some of those markers have been plowed under by heavy equipment.

"Apparently they just made part of the cemetery a road," Paul Vincuilla of Waltham said yesterday. "It breaks my heart to see that."

Heavy treads of construction equipment ran over the rows of graves. In the treads' path, headstones were cracked or pushed into the earth and coffin-size depressions gaped, where graves had apparently collapsed under the weight of the machines.

State contractors hauling debris from a nearby dumping site caused the damage inadvertently, not realizing the site is a graveyard, said Vanessa Gulati, a spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

"They didn't even notice they were there until it was brought to DCR's attention," which happened this January, Gulati said.

Most of the grave markers are concrete block. They come about six inches above the ground, simply bearing a number and a letter -- "C" for Catholic, or "P" for Protestant. A low wall of field stones marks the graveyard on three sides.

The Caterpillar treads come into the graveyard where the gravel road narrows to a dirt track, smashing a corner of the stone wall and apparently using the site as a turnaround.

The DCR, which is redeveloping that portion of the 336-acre former hospital grounds as an addition to the Beaver Brook Reservation, plans to fix the damage, once the ground thaws. Eventually, they will install a decorative fence and a plaque bearing names of the deceased, retrieved from state records.

Vincuilla first came to this isolated graveyard about 10 years ago, driving a "haunted hay ride" through the grounds to raise money for handicap-accessible playgrounds at Waltham schools.

He later came back occasionally, on foot, to pray for the souls of 350 former residents of two state hospitals, now resting there.

This is not the first time graveyard maintenance has come up, said Marie Daly, clerk of the Waltham Land Trust. Members of the trust have pushed state agencies to trim grass and keep the site better, before, she said.

In a public meeting Tuesday, DCR Director Dan Driscoll said the agency is committed to preserving the site.

"They say they are," Daly said. "Whether or not they will have the resources to be able to carry it out, remains. But that's not for their lack of trying."

This article was written by Galen Moore and published by Daily News on Friday, March 10th 2006 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use. The photographs featured in the article are randomly selected from the Metropolitan State Hospital galleries on opacity.us unless noted otherwise; they may not directly relate to the article subject matter except for the site location - any other relation is purely coincidental.