12-7-07
Body found in DSH field identified.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has identified
the body of the man found in a Danvers field on Oct. 9,
2007, as that of Jose Rivera, 54, whose last known address
was 141 May Street in Lawrence. The identification was made
through skeletal x-rays by Dr. Ann Marie Mires and Dr. Kimberly
Springer.
Rivera's
body was found in a farmer¹s field off Route 62 on
the grounds of the former Danvers State Hospital. Rivera
had gone to CAB Health & Recovery Services near where
his body was found on Aug. 11, and had left the facility
the next day.
Foul play is not suspected in his death.
Investigators
are still trying to locate Rivera¹s next of kin. Anyone
with information is asked to contact Danvers police Detective
Sgt. William Carleton at 978-774-1388, ext. 3, or State
Police assigned to the Office of Essex District Attorney
Jonathan W. Blodgett at 978-745-8908.
10-30-07
Body in field not identified yet Cathryn
O’Hare. Danvers Herald
The
body found in a field at the former Danvers State Hospital
on Oct. 9 has not yet been positively identified.
“We
believe we know who it is,” said Steve O’Connell,
spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney’s
office. The only official word at this point, however, is
that it was an adult male.
Middleton
farmer Paul Richardson of Richardson’s Dairy rents
the state-owned field at the former hospital site, some
400-plus acres of which 77 were sold to Avalon Bay Communities
for a rental and condominium development. The farmer and
his employee were surveying the field when they found the
badly decomposed body.
The
state medical examiner will use dental records or DNA, said
O’Connell, to make a positive identification. The
authorities also need to locate and inform next of kin.
“We
have no reason to expect foul play,” O’Connell
said.
10-8-07
Body found in field Cathryn O'Hare and Brendan
Lewis Danvers Herald
A
Middleton farmer found a decomposing body Tuesday afternoon
on the state owned field he farms across the line in Danvers
at the former Danvers State Hospital.
Paul
Richardson, of Richardson’s Dairy in Middleton, said
he and an employee had been on a tractor surveying the field
for fall planting when they spotted what appeared to be
a dead body.
“It
was a pretty well decomposed body,” Richardson said
Wednesday morning. He speculated that it might have been
a child, judging by the shoe size.
Richardson
called Danvers police, who dispatched Officer Ashley Berube
at about 2:30 p.m. She immediately secured the scene, said
Sgt. Robert Bettencourt. Danvers Detective William Carlton
and Sgt. Timothy Zuch also responded.
State
Police were called, as they are for any unattended death,
said Karen Dawley of the Essex County District Attorney’s
Office. The state police spent about two or three hours
before removing the body to the state medical examiner’s
office in Boston, she said.
An
autopsy will be conducted to determine cause of death, whether
there was any foul play and, possibly, who the person was.
7-8-07
Central tower reconstructed.
If there's anything positive to come out of the demolition
of DSH, I suppose the reconstruction of the upper portion
of the original central tower is one. It's not an exact
replica but a good attempt and it's better than not having
anything up there at all. The sides were rebuilt a couple
of weeks ago and the roof was added on Friday July 6th.
Pictures located here.
6-15-07
Website update.
After
almost two years, I finally updated the website. Pages 5
and 6 to Preston's interview are finally completed and the
picture galleries have been updated along with a new gallery
of vintage DSH photographs and postcards.
4-9-07
Massive 4-alarm fire to nascent apartments still under investigation.
Amanda McGregor. Salem News.
As
Danvers firefighters squelched persistent embers in the
rubble at the Danvers State Hospital site, the company developing
the property said yesterday it is determined to rebuild
as soon as the smoke clears. The Easter Eve fire destroyed
three unfinished apartment buildings atop Hathorne Hill,
where AvalonBay developers are replacing the storied state
mental hospital with a sweeping development of 433 apartments
and 64 condominiums.
“Absolutely,”
said Scott Dale when asked if the developers would rebuild.
Dale, vice president of AvalonBay, was reached at his home
on Easter morning. “Once the area of the fire has
been released back to us — subsequent to the insurance
company and the fire department investigation — we
will start reconstruction,” Dale said.
For
the town, it was the second major blaze on the eve of a
holiday in less than six months. On the day before Thanksgiving,
a Danversport chemical plan exploded in the middle of the
night into a ball of flames, displacing an entire neighborhood.
Residents there are still grappling with the disaster.
“It’s
unusual we had two big events in six months,” said
Capt. Frank Sacco, a 20-year veteran of the fire department.
“In this line of business, things sometimes happen
in cycles.”Remarkably, no one was killed during the
explosion, or during last weekend’s fire. “We
were lucky it was unoccupied structures under construction,
and that no one was there,” Sacco said of Saturday’s
early-morning blaze. The smoke from the fire was so heavy
that State Police had to close Route 1 and Interstate 95.
The
fire is still under investigation, and the blaze kept firefighters
busy throughout the weekend. Danvers Fire Chief James Tutko
likened the fresh construction, which didn’t yet have
sprinklers, to a lumberyard. Fire crews are expected to
be stationed there until this afternoon. “There is
a lot of masonry there, and bricks and concrete hold heat
for a long time,” Sacco said yesterday afternoon.
“There are so many hot spots still.”
The
three incinerated buildings were to house 147 apartments,
but all that remained were the concrete towers of stairwells
and elevator shafts. Dale said the buildings were in various
stages of development — at most 60 to 70 percent complete
— and would have opened in June or July. No specific
tenants were slated to move in, Dale said. The fire also
destroyed three or four garages and utility buildings. “I
guess the only silver lining here is that nobody was injured
seriously,” said Dale. “The Danvers Fire Department
did an excellent job in responding to the fire and protecting
some adjacent buildings.” The flames spared the hospital’s
historic Kirkbride Building except for one charred cupola,
which caught fire because of heat radiating from the other
buildings. Firefighters from eight communities responded
to the four-alarm blaze. The looming, spired facade of the
130-year-old Kirkbride building can be spotted from around
the area, and what remains of it is being refurbished to
accommodate apartments.
The
looming, spired facade of the 130-year-old Kirkbride building
can be spotted from around the area, and what remains of
it is being refurbished to accommodate apartments. The development
of the 77-acre site is still in the early stages. The first
apartments opened earlier this year, with 48 occupied so
far. The development will eventually consist of 433 luxury
apartments and 64 condominiums on the old hospital grounds
off Route 62. The site of the fire was fenced off yesterday,
and residents living in the new apartments on the occupied
side of the AvalonBay development were back in their homes.
They had been evacuated to Danvers High School early Saturday
morning. Dale said that in his experience, such fires are
uncommon.
“It’s
a very rare occurrence, actually,” said Dale. “We
take measures to prevent this type of thing.”
Marblehead
Highlands, a condominium complex in Marblehead, met a similar
fate in November 2005 when a Saturday-morning blaze burned
the four-story, 21-unit building to the ground, just a month
before residents were slated to move in. And a one-alarm
fire last month caused $1 million in damage to the newly
constructed Highlands at Dearborn apartment complex in Peabody
overlooking Route 128. Dale said AvalonBay will investigate
its safety practices. “We’re conducting our
own internal audit to determine what, if anything, we could
have done on our end to prevent this,” said Dale.
4-7-07
Four-alarm fire ravages former state mental hospital
By
Allison Mudge, Boston Globe.
A
four-alarm fire at the former Danvers State Hospital destroyed
seven buildings and shut Route 1 down temporarily early
this morning.The buildings, currently undergoing renovations,
were empty. The facility is being renovated into apartment
buildings and condominiums. State police also briefly evacuated
20 people living in neighboring, already-completed buildings
as a precaution. Six firefighters were treated for minor
injuries. The fire, which began around 2 a.m., took several
hours to bring under control. AvalonBay Communities Inc.
is handling the renovations. The plan is to build 433 luxury
rental units and 64 condominiums on the site's 77 acres,
the Globe reported in February. The project is also to include
amenities like an indoor sports court and a cyber cafe,
a far cry from the building's dreary past. The hospital,
abandoned since 1992 in response to accusations of overcrowding,
abuse, and neglect, was primarily used to treat "spiritual
maladies."
After
being closed, the hospital quickly became a hot spot for
thrill-seeking ghost hunters who believed the grounds to
be filled with troubled spirits. The high level of curiosity
and trespassing forced to the state to employ 24-hour security
guards for a time. The 2001 film "Session 9,"
about an asbestos cleaning crew working in an abandoned
mental hospital with a suspect past, was filmed at Danvers
State and also brought attention to the facility. Danvers
State is not the only former mental institution undergoing
a facelift. There's a growing trend toward renovation of
the facilities abandoned since the 1980s, when mental health
care was de-institutionalized.
Click
here
for video footage of the fire. Note you need to use IE to
watch it. |
