1,384 Comments for Gaebler Children's Center

Gaebler is currently being torn down. I went there the other day to take a look around and take some pictures...a bobcat has gone in and cleared out a most of the space and the boards over the windows have been removed...lots of cement and debris everywhere. If anyone if looking to check the place out before it's completely demolished I would go soon a sit will probably be all gone in a month (to make way for more condos probably).

Massguy
Not yet

From what I hear, the whole buildings gone

(Just a note I made the 2 posts above using the name "bunkbed", now using the name "Richard". :) )
Somehow when I think about it after looking around at what's left of the place as it's being torn down(remember I unfortunately never got my lazy ass around to getting to see the inside beforehand, **SULKING**), I think this room looks more like it was a closet/tiny storage room, or maybe even a small bathroom.

Class of '65...People that share their memories are what keep sites like these cool; So thanks from me. Talking openly and honestly about things is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Besides, ideas like separating the vulnerable from society and exploiting them are ideas that don't really ever die. They just come in and out of fashion. So, it's best to understand what systems we built in the past, why they were wrong, and how we can avoid them in the future. In a small way, people like you help us reach that goal, IMHO.

Hey there boiler, I admit I was never at Gaebler but I'm a lifelong Mass. resident and would certainly be interested in talking with you or anyone else who was there and what it was like. I was up there a couple times in the last week and made a post about it in the first pic in this section.
schoolbed@live.com or
schoolbed1@yahoo.com

I've never been able to talk to anyone from my childhood till I talked to gaebler88 about slapping some kid so hard. And it feels great to remember my childhood. Or should I say to have some that can remember it with me. That's never happened before and its great. So hopefully. I find more old friends here

Class of 65
For some reason we can't get over it. Not dwelling on it, but just the bond we all have from being there. I see the place just as a part of my past, Just a part of my life. It just different from everyone else's. All the "normal kids" talk about old times in school and the things they did in the past amongst themselves, and that's what we can't do till now. I love meeting, and talking to the people i meet now about then. It seams we all care about eachother, even though we may have never met before. I'm just lucky enough to have not let that place run me. Some people can't get over that time. They need, and search for a reason it had to happen to them. That's why I think some people dwell on that time. I just love meeting people in person and talking about our time there and how we all moved on and made it after. I really want to meet more people from there. I guess that's how I dwell on it. I keep looking for people that I can talk to about the times we were kids, and no "normal person" can understand that. I wish some of your friends from then would post on here. I love hearing that it was still semi the same then

Ok here's another update.
If you can believe it I just drove an hour and a half two nights ago to check it out as I was anxious to see if anything was still left, and spent a couple hours in the dark very early morning going through it. The actual outer shell of the building is still fully standing, however most of the inside has been gutted. It's certainly no problem whatsoever getting in there now as practically every door and window is now completely opened up, lol. ;) There are large piles of rubble and some other construction equipment surrounding the place. A few sections of the inside like the basement and the gym are still intact, as well as some of the stairways so you can pretty much move throughout, although you certainly wanna be careful as I did see a couple openings in the floor, easy to see as long as you watch where you're going, where you could actually fall through to below. There's also a large hole in one section of the roof on the third floor.
I'm really kinda pissed as I procrastinated too much and didn't get to see the inside before it was torn apart, although you do get an interesting perspective now as well like in terms of how fortress-like the buildings construction was. It makes for some kinda weird and strange thoughts for me of how even in the mid 20th century it almost seems as if the primary concern in designing the place was to make it escape proof for the poor emotionally suffering young inhabitants trapped inside.
Like for example in addition to the outer walls which appear to be about a foot and a half thick from outside to inside wall, with a concrete block inner wall in addition to the outer red brick layer, all the original windows were essentially large rectangular hard (steel or iron?) grates comprised of several small (maybe 8 by 5 inch?) pains of glass so even if all the pains were broken the super hard probably cemented in grate would only allow someones arm to be stuck through to the outside. Although some of them as you can see in the pics I guess did have sections that could be opened although I imagine it wasn't very wide. And as is mentioned elsewhere in this gallery it appears that many of those later on had more modern hinged lockable security screens (like super strong versions of window screens), installed over them for additional escape-proofness. Also it seems that so many of the inside surfaces, wall and floors etc., were of very cold and hard materials like tile and glossy painted/porcelain brick walls and terrazzo-like flooring. And all the doors throughout were also very heavy looking.
It almost seems as if even when the place first opened it may have seemed a bit dated and kinda forbidding and scary for a troubled little child being forcibly brought in there.
But yet at the same time even though I was never there as a patient some part of me is still kinda pissed that the narrow minded city of Waltham is so eager to get rid of it.
I'd be interested in talking with anyone here about the place:
My MSN is schoolbed@live.com or yahoo is schoolbed1@yahoo.com :)
:)

Oh and Pookie what is your facebook addy, not just your name as I tried entering the name you posted and couldn't find you?? Would love to see your pics!

Is any of it still left????
I'm tempted to go there like even tonight or in the next few days as I hadn't checked here in a while and didn't realize they'd started tearing it down already although I knew it was coming.
I was foolishly lazy in getting my ass up there to try and see the inside although I did get to see the outside.
Damm Fucking city of Waltham!! **MAD** ;)

John, re: your post of 8-18-08

I remember Tom Heathwood. He was asst. to the head nurse on ward c when i was there. Gene Veloux was head nurse. Two years since your post I don't imagine you're likely to see this but if you do let me know the year you were there.

On the other hand ... Here I am forty five years later posting to this forum. Maybe I should GET OVER IT! ... LOL

Yeah Boiler, the stories never change. Seclusion time was longer back then I guess. I had spent days in the room at a time. No mattress then, stripped naked on the floor. When it got to me, I'd just start kicking the door and sooner or later they came with the Thorazine hypo and the room went away. I was there on a "stubborn child complaint" My mother just wanted to get rid of me so the court sent me to Gaebler till I turned 16. (6 months) On ward C the counselors weren't any crueler than the rules allowed them to be. I read an article that some guy wrote on Gaebler and all I can say is GET OVER IT! It was so much worse when I was there and feeling sorry for your self changes nothing.

Belmonster
Contact me at 617-733-8597 I will be going there very soon