Wednesday, 8 March 2017, Late Winter Ride to Medfield State Hospital
Ride Leader: Susan Sabin
25 miles, 10:00 am start from leader's home, Wellesley, MA
Riders (8): Susan, Butch Pemstein, Gary Smiley, Gene Ho, Richard Mandel, Selig Saltzman, Tom Allen, and first-timer Ken Halpern.
Present at lunch: Don Mannes.
The rain had just stopped when we assembled, and the sun finally shone on the way back, but the temps were mild all the way. Medfield State Hospital campus is a fascinating ghost town - and we were lucky to be able to get inside the chapel, which was being worked on as we spoke outside it.
By chance the leader had encountered the head of the grounds crew when she scouted the ride, so she was armed with much more information than expected. In addition, Selig had some memories of the place, as his father had worked as a doctor there and lived on campus with his young family. Selig was between five and six years old at the time.
In addition to touring the campus, we also stopped at the cemetery grounds which many of you have seen in the past.
We had one flat, full attendance at lunch, and a delightful day.
Report by Susan Sabin.
Photo of interior of chapel courtesy of Tom Allen. NOTE - all lower windows are boarded up with plywood. Upper ones had recently had the plywood covers replaced with plexi, so that the building can be more easily inspected as decisions are made about its future.
Ride start photo courtesy of Don Mannes.
