DANVERS — Developer Scott Dale, who oversaw the transformation of the former Danvers State property for the past seven years, recalled his first visit to the hospital during a grand opening ceremony last night.
He said the state, which owned the property at the time, made him sign a waiver that read, "If I die on the tour, I wouldn't hold the state accountable for my death."
He thought that was not such great marketing. Then he caught sight of the weeds through the cracks in the masonry, the bars on the windows, the asbestos that had to be removed, and the water in the cellars.
"I can remember vividly my reaction after the tour," Dale said. "That was awesome. That would make a great housing site, that is just what we are looking for."
What he got was the longest construction project AvalonBay has ever undertaken. It cost $80 million to build. It's now 95 percent leased and 90 percent occupied.
State and local officials and top brass of AvalonBay Communities joined together to celebrate the end of nine years of hard work. It took that long to turn a shuttered and crumbling Gothic revival mental hospital on Hathorne Hill into a 433-apartment complex with manicured landscaping, heated outdoor swimming pool and fitness club.
The grand opening ceremony of Avalon Danvers, complete with a jazz trio, cocktails and plenty of hors d'oeuvres, took place in the Tower Club clubhouse, behind what is left of the signature Kirkbride building.
About two-thirds of the landmark was demolished as were most of the other buildings of the hospital, which began admitting patients in 1878.
The project was hailed as one of the largest reuses of a state hospital site.
Officials also acknowledged the suffering and hardship patients suffered for decades. A memorial to those buried in unmarked graves has been built at the site.
H. Peter Norstrand, deputy commissioner of the state Division of Capital Asset Management, called the grand opening "this historic event."
The project put $6 million into the state's general fund, Norstrand said, and created 497 units, including the apartment complex and a nearby Aria adult community condominium.
Danvers also got $1 million for its schools, $500,000 for affordable housing and $500,000 for historic preservation — $400,000 of which will go to the Town Hall exterior renovation project. The town will also get hundreds of thousands in real estate taxes from the project.
"You just behold the 100,000 square feet of the preserved Kirkbride building," Norstrand said. "It has been preserved and it will be for future generations to enjoy." The apartment complex uses the core Kirkbride building, the hospital's former administration building, and two of its wings as a focal point for a complex that includes 12 buildings.
"I'm quite impressed with what they did with the Kirkbride building," said Bill Nicholson, a longtime member of the Danvers State Hospital Re-Use Committee.
"I wish it was bigger," he said of that structure. Nevertheless, his first visit to the finished complex impressed him.
"They did what they said they were going to do."
Selectmen Chairman Keith Lucy acknowledged that a compromise had to be made between finding a developer who could do the job versus letting the Kirkbride building completely fall to ruin. He said the town was the impetus to get the ball rolling after the hospital closed for good in 1992.
"Given the alternative, which was nothing, or the state could've sold it to someone they chose, the involvement benefited the town in the long run," Lucy said.
State Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvears, said the project respected the property's history.
"One of the first times when Danvers State came to my attention was the Blizzard of 1978 when people up here were left alone," said Speliotis, who sponsored the legislation for the state to sell the 77 acres to AvalonBay.
He said the initial thought was to make this a company's corporate headquarters, but he said the site deserved more due to its legacy as a state hospital.
"For over 100 years, this land was entrusted to those who received the least," Speliotis said. Housing was the most fitting use for the site.
The ceremony was all the more remarkable because in April 2007, a fire swept through three adjoining buildings that were under construction, wiping out 147 apartments.
Deputy fire Chief Kevin Farrell recalled responding to the fire and coming up the road by a former water tower on the site and being forced to turn around because of a wall of flames.
"I'm impressed they got it up in about a year," Farrell said.
The project was more than just the preservation of a portion of the Kirkbride building, which has 61 apartments. It encompasses 77 acres, involving 64 so-called Aria condominiums on the Highlands portion of the site, adjacent to Avalon Danvers.
Then there is the new Beverly Hospital at Danvers facility of Northeast Healthcare System on the Lowlands portion of the parcel. Dale said the company has not decided how to develop another nine acres of the Lowlands.
One person absent from last night's ceremony was Dick Trask, the town archivist, who favored more of the Kirkbride building being preserved over the years. He likened the Kirkbride's preservation to a "lobbed off head of a former great building."
More than 40 buildings were demolished, Trask said in a phone interview last night, calling the project "an historical rape of an important structure, not just to Danvers but to the United States."
Avalon executives said much of the Kirkbride building had fallen into disrepair.
Topsfield's Michael Binette, a principal with the architectural firm, The Architectural Team of Chelsea, said he also worked on the renovation of Lexington State Hospital, and found the buildings in Danvers to be in much worse shape. His team, including architect Edward Bradford, did what it could to preserve and complement what was left of the Kirkbride building.
"This architecture was so much more spectacular," Binette said. "This was the jewel in the state's crown."
Danvers State reuse time line
1874 — Construction begins on the Gothic revival "Kirkbride" hospital.
1878 — Danvers State Hospital opens.
1940s — At its height, the hospital houses and treats 2,000 patients, even though it was designed for a capacity of less than 600.
1982: Planning for the reuse of the site begins
1992 — The hospital closes and its buildings begin to deteriorate.
1993-1994: Reuse study and reuse implementation plan are drafted.
1994: The Danvers State Hospital Re-Use Committee proposes a zoning change for commercial development, but a mixup means it never makes it to Town Meeting.
1999 — The state allocates $38,000 to landscape and put names on 768 on-site graves where patients were buried in graves marked with only numbers.
October 1999 — More than 1,000 Danvers residents sign a petition asking for a ban on commercial development at the site.
November 1999 — By a margin of seven votes, Town Meeting rezones the site to allow commercial development.
2000 — After letting it deteriorate for nearly nine years, the state pledges to board up the Kirkbride building and hire a new security firm and start a better maintenance program.
2001 — From a pool of 11 applicants and three final bidders, the Danvers State Hospital Citizen Advisory Committee selects the Archstone Communities Trust to redevelop the hospital site for $21.7 million. Archstone says it can only preserve the core of the Kirkbride building.
2002 — Archstone pulls out, citing rising construction costs and a market downturn.
2005 — After years of controversy and preservationists' attempts to save the Kirkbride building, the 77-acre site is sold to AvalonBay Communities for $18.1 million.
2006 — Demolition and construction begin.
January 2007 — The first new apartment building opens on the site.
April 2007 — Fire destroys three of the newly constructed buildings and several smaller outbuildings.
June 26,2008 — Avalon Danvers celebrates its grand opening with the last building rebuilt after the fire receiving an occupancy permit June 1.
From Salem News archives, interview with Town Manager Wayne Marquis, and the Web site danversstateinsaneasylum.com
