On community-based health services and the Crown Jewel of the Emerald Necklace
Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, which is slated for demolition soon, sits on land that was “Heathfield” - a scenic setting near the westernmost entrance to Frederick Law Olmsted’s masterpiece, Franklin Park, the crown jewel of the Emerald Necklace parks in Boston. Heathfield was once a grassy open field with full public access and walking paths surrounded by forest and rocky slopes, including “Rock Milton”, a large puddingstone cliff that rises above Scarboro Pond. Now it is covered with asphalt parking lot and sits behind a barbed-wire fence.
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| General Plan of Franklin Park, 1885, revised to 1892, Frederick Law Olmsted, Courtesy National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site |
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| Franklin Park, 1900-1915, Boston Landmarks Collection image collection, Courtesy of Boston Archives |
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| (Detail) General Plan of Franklin Park, 1885, revised to 1892, Frederick Law Olmsted, Courtesy National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site |
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| Scarboro Pond Lower Bridge (Rock Milton behind), 1901, P. R. Jones, photographer. Courtesy National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site |
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| Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, eastern side abutting Franklin Park |
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| Lemuel Shattuck Hospital from Rock Milton side |
The City of Boston agreed to convey more than 13 acres of Franklin Park to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1949 specifically for healthcare purposes, and in the seventy years since, the site has been used for the care of respiratory ailments, cancer patients, HIV care, psychiatric services, addiction treatment as well as Department of Corrections inmates with health issues. Several non-profits operate both short- and long- term services for the homeless and clients with substance use disorder on the site.
The buildings of the Shattuck campus are outdated and cannot be rehabilitated cost-effectively, so the Commonwealth has begun a public discussion on how best to re-purpose the site. In a time of sky-rocketing, nationwide opioid addiction and substance abuse, as well as inadequate services for the homeless, there is a chronic need to expand capacity within the city and state for emergency and transitional housing for all such clients.
But what is the best solution for serving these clients and helping them transition toward optimal health outcomes? Might there be an opportunity for Franklin Park in the answer?
Since the Supreme Court’s 1999 “Olmstead” decision, Federal law requires that such clients receive services within the least restrictive and most integrated settings possible - within the communities they hope to re-enter rather than in isolated institutional settings that are stigmatizing.
Simply “replacing” the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital facilities on the same site does not take into account these 21st Century best practices. There are Commonwealth-owned alternative sites nearby that could serve these integration goals better than lands that were once part of Franklin Park. But the State seems not to have considered alternative sites for these services at all. The premise of their planning process appears to begin with an outdated 12-story building rather than with what is in the best interests of the clients and patients they have an obligation to serve.
For the Commonwealth, for the City of Boston and for the Park there is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get it right - to improve health outcomes for these clients and patients, but also to restore this “broken” portion of Olmsted’s masterpiece.
Olmsted conceived Franklin Park in 1885 as a “country park” to be used “exclusively with reference to rural scenery” – a conception he deemed crucial to the health of urban dwellers in the surrounding neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Mattapan, Roslindale and Dorchester. Providing rest, recreation, and the democratizing comingling of Bostonians from all races, faiths, classes and backgrounds, Franklin Park has been a respite from the pressures of city life in Boston for generations.
But over the years this vast 527-acre, internationally celebrated public space has become fragmented and made less “public” by the creation of the William J. Devine Golf Course, Zoo New England’s Franklin Park Zoo, the Boston Public Schools’ George Robert White Schoolboy Stadium and the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital site within the park.
Following on the heels of an ambitious Pathways Improvement project recently completed, the City of Boston is embarking on a new multimillion dollar Franklin Park Master Planning process to consider ways to refine the park and improve access for the public. These efforts, undertaken with active community input and engagement, hope to result in a park worthy of Olmsted’s goals on the 200th anniversary of his birth coming up in 2022.
Now is the time for the Commonwealth and City of Boston to coordinate and integrate all these goals: Shattuck Hospital decommissioning and demolition; enhanced and expanded services for mental health and homeless clients within surrounding communities; and the restoration and rehabilitation of Franklin Park to its former glory as a “country park” and the “Crown Jewel” of the Emerald Necklace. Don’t let the opportunity slip away.
To learn more, visit the following links:
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