Bonner Medical Building

1955-2006

The Bonner Medical Building was built in 1955 to help aleiviate overcrowding in the already deterioriating Kirkbride building.
The Bonner would be used up to about 1995 as the sole remains of the Danvers State Hospital. The Kirkbride was closed in the early 80's. When I went down there in 1984 with my high school psyche class on a field trip, the Kirk was not used. We had  a full tour of the Bonner which was quite interesting. Many thanks to John Gagnon, the teacher for bringing us down there.

This view is from the back. The central administration portion of the Kirkbride building can be seen just to the right.

Another view of the Bonner taken in 2003 from the back.

Bonner Building as viewed from the front during a "tour" in 2003.
 

Many thanks to John Gray of DSIA for leaving me a voice message tipping me off to the senseless and needless destruction of this building.

Many thanks especially to Lisa McCauley who after a phone call informing her of the information provided by John immediately raced over ot get some pictures before dark.
 

We believe that this wanton act was perpetrated on 2/16/06. Lisa drove by on route 1 around 9am and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Later on that afternoon, it was a totaly different story.

Here are the two views of the carnage provided by Lisa.

As you can see, more than half of the building has been turned into rubble.
 

Little closer view, unfortunately the trees were in the way but you get the idea.
 

Taken from Dayton St you can see the shell of the Bonner with all of it's windows out, the center Admin is on the right.

"Front and Center" as viewed from Dayton St, not the absense of the female home and the church which would have been visible in this picture. The remains of the Bonner are to the left of this picture.

Female wing as viewed from Dayton St. Won't be long before this view is no more.

Surprisingly the Grey Gables are still there. I expected this building to be fatally vandalized by the destruction crews by now. Note that it is back to it's original colors. The not-so-grey gables.

Gables and Female Wing.

Back to the Bonner, just a shell. Only about 1/3 left. Surprised it lasted 'til today, thought they would have finished it off yesterday. Will check on it over the weekend.
 

Bonner and "Front and Center", the name for the Admin building. See John Gray's interview with the former head of maintenance at DSH for some very interesting information.
John has been putting in a lot of time and effort transcribing the interview from tape to text. It's a very interesting read so far and we're only at the beginning.
 

Obscured view of the rubble pile. You can also make out that the bottom floor has not been destroyed yet, at least not the walls, it is probably filled with rubble unless those floors are awefully strong.

Remaining portion of the Bonner, the wing on the right. Looks like the building has been gutted totally and is ready to be destroyed. Did it survive Friday? Will it be finished off on Saturday? Who knows, will try to get down there Sat and Sun. One thing is for sure, it's not likely to make it past Monday or Tuesday.
 

View a little to the left, rubble pile, bottom floor, and wing on the right side.
 
 

Interesting end view of the main part of the Bonner, the wing is on the right and the rubble pile is quite visible on the left.

Slightly different view.
 

See how well the building has been gutted.

Rubble Pile, destruction equipment, and center Admin visible in the back.

Rubble pile.

Rubble pile, central admin behind.