In Medfield, music will fill this empty space
An arts center is taking shape on the grounds of a former state psychiatric hospital, with outdoor concerts in store until those plans reach fruition
MEDFIELD — In the fall of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the Coolidge Corner Theatre hosted a special drive-in screening of “Shutter Island” in this Norfolk County town. The location was apt: Martin Scorsese’s 2010 thriller, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed in part on the abandoned grounds of the former Medfield State Hospital.
With more than two dozen buildings on 87 acres, the hospital campus had approximately 2,300 patients at the height of its occupancy. By the time it closed in 2003, just 200 remained. In recent years, the only people making use of the space, about a 40-minute drive outside Boston, have been dog owners and power walkers.
Last summer, however, more than 10,000 people visited the vacant, boarded-up campus. They gathered on the lawn next to Lee Chapel, the centerpiece of the former psychiatric hospital, to hear live local music.