1,384 Comments for Gaebler Children's Center

My only wish is that i wasn't demolished. When you were there taking these pictures did anything paranormal happen? Did you feel an uneasy presence while being there? I would like to know more about The Geabier Children's Center. Please contact me at jann22896@yahoo.com if you have any information that you find hat might help me in my research. No worries, I am not a reporter or anything of the sort. I am interested in my personal research.

I'm up before dawn these days so I come to this site in the silence to look at photos and read the stories about places, especially Gaebler. It amazes me always how resilient children are, and what great adults they become even after such abuse. Survivors are heroes to our society because you have a lot to offer kids who need to hear that life does move on. I've been through some hell myself & thank you for living through memories. As a screenwriter, sometimes reality is more scary than anything fictional. Love and happiness to all Gaebler survivors, you deserve it. Have a wonderful holiday season :)

Boiler,
you are so my friend I wish I had when I was growing up, we could have taken on the world,,,,,but, it's never to late......

Boiler my friend,
you sound crazy? Never, you are probably right, I do think they drugged the kids so they could see how they could conttol them into doing whatever they wanted, it was all about control, and as for the dentist, I know I never went to the dentist when I was there, you are not crazy. well, maybe to me cause I know you and you are such a nice guy, but, for real in this world, by no means are you crazy....

Belmonster,
Hello there and good morning, Yes, you actually are tresspassing the second u step on the grounds, my husband and I were at the bottom of the hill as you enter and the police told us were tresspassing and could have us arrested and my van impounded, but, I got lucky since they looked my name and my husbands name up and we didn't have a criminal record or even any tickets or accidents, so he let us go, I used the excuse I was just turning around to go down the street the opposite way I came.....I do have mixed feelings, I think they should have done something good with the place, I don't think taking it down was the thing to do, I think they should have made a children's center out of it where kids who do have problems can go there and talk to people and other kids but, not in a locked environment, like a day center or something like that and also that kids who were patients be the ones to run the place cause we would know exactly how to deal with trouble kids and teens and know what to say to them and help them and not cut them down, drug them and lock them up,,,,If the city of Waltham who only aquired the building in 2005 thought by taking it down it would hide what went on in their, they are sadly mistaken, I will get my voice heard on that, you can't hide that kind of abuse and crap, eventually I will find someone to listen to me, and the Dept of Mental Health will get in trouble, they said they called it for budget cut reasons, that's not what happened, my boyfriend got the living shit kicked out of him in hiis sleep by 2 sraff members to the point where he ended up in the hospital and almost died and his parents took the place and staff to court and they won and he never had to go back there again, one of the staff members actually called his parents and said you need to get here something happened to your son, then they changed all their policies, how you took showers and went to the bathrrom and added more outside activites and they never secluded a child again, they had a lot of lawsuits against them and I know some of them are probably still pending, it was a horrible place to grow up in as a child......

Richard
The fence was flimsy because I would drive over it with pookie to get in without having to climb. But its gone now

At the risk of sounding crazy, does anyone think that us, gaebler, and met state were part of mk-ultra or some kind of experiment for drugs, so on? Like did that guy with the seven teeth murder know what he was doing, or was he being controlled.
What's your thoughts on the whole thing? Like I said. - don't want to sound crazy, but it has crossed my mind. Does anyone remember going to the dentist???

Hey Pookie I saw it last night on my jog too. As far as I know you're not trespassing if you don't pass the fence. You're feelings must be mixed seeing it come down. I hope we take better care now of Children with family or mental issues than we did back then : my hunch is we treat them the same but a Pharmaceutical company gets a chunk of profit

JG,
I agree with you about our parents never being allowed in our rooms, I don't know why that was, when I was there 82-84, they had to visit us downstairs where you actually first come into the building, my parents were never allowed on the ward I was on, I was on D, it was really strange, I think the staff knew that if they let the parents up to see our ward and bedrooms and what kind of living conditions we live in then there would have been a lot more law suits then already going on at the time,...but, now the building is gone, it's been taken down, nothing left but rubble and debris, Tues 11/16/10 it was completely down...

Just wanted to let everyone know that the building is now gone, it has been taken down and demolished, all that is left is rubble and piles and piles of debris....

I just wanted to let everyone know that Gaebler is now down, the entire building has completely down on Tuesday 11/16/10, now it's just a pile rubble. It looks scary, I didn't get pictures cause the police are parolling it all the time and already got caught once but, was able to talk my way out of it, even thou I wasn't near ther building I was at the end of the driveway and the sign says no tresspassing, so I was lucky I could have gotten arrested. Anyway, I am going to try this weekend and take pictures of it all down and what is left of the rubble and piles of bricks and crap. I will keep everyone updated to the best of my knowledge....

JG
That's when I was there. Who was your older brother? If you don't mind me asking! I thing I would know him.

Jace
This is in the gym. Back left wall. Near the back stairs

Great pictures. It is very interesting for me to see what the rooms look like. My older brother lived at Gaebler for a few years right before it closed. I was about 6 or 7 when he lived there and he has lived in many places since. As far as I remember we were never allowed to go to his room or anything...there must have been a common room where we got to see him. I also remember playing on a swing set that was near by.

Jace, when were you there? I was there 82-84, the City of Waltham is not the issue, they just bought the building in 2005, I know this for a face because I live in Waltham and have most of my life, the Dept of Mental Health owned it til then, the ciry of Waltham did want to make a children's center out of it, but, because the asbestos and lead paint were high, it was to expensive to remodel, so it was cheaper for them to tear it down, cause the building is hazardous. I agree, it shouldn't be torn down, that something good should be made from the horror that we had to endure and that someone needs to tell someone what went on in there, I emailed channel 5 and I never heard from them. If you request me as a friend on facebook you can all my pictures of the place as I have been in the building several times and took pics and videos. I also heard a lot of the kids that were there never made it to the 20th birthday. The staff I feel need to take responsibility for their actions of the treatment that gave us, as well all the dept of mental health and all the dr's who drugged us and every other thing. I hope that you are doing well in your life now, I am, I am happily married with 2 beautiful girls, one is 16yrs old and the one ts 6yrs old. I am going to try and get up there today as the rain here has stopped, you can't drive up there anymore, there is way to many police patrolling the place all the time as the building is all opened now and a danger to society, so we my husband and I have been doing is going to Rock Meadow on the Belmont side of the place, the same street Mclean's Hosp is on and walking thru the woods to get there......I will post here and give an update as to if I did or didn't get there and what the place looks like now.......