Exploring the West Side, Saint John, NB 2022: Dark history swept under a carpet

The excursion begins on the East Side of the Reversing Falls Bridge

Notice the park to the right on the opposite side of the river.  That is 
Wolastoq Park, formerly the site of Centracare, originally named The New Brunswick Lunatic Asylum, Saint John's own Arkham.  Now we have
this lovely park and information about the old hospital on the internet is quite scant. Some history will be painted over and forgotten. 

 

Highlights of the journey are in the video below.

https://youtu.be/IixdMNzxKOQ

I found a few old pictures on the net but not too much.  I couldn't find articles about how Centracare and other mental health institutions began closing in Canada, the U.S.  and other countries.  I remember at the time, that a lot of patients were released who weren't really prepared to take care of themselves.  They were in those hospitals for reasons after all. The quality of care in these institutions had been criticized for good reasons but closing them instead of investing in upgrades and reform didn't seem to be a practical answer unless the real purpose was only to keep more tax money in the pockets of the rich.   These were easily the most vulnerable people of society and easiest to write off as a lost cause without any of them putting up a fight.

 I remember reading how, in Toronto, former psychiatric patients tended to congregate in certain low-income neighborhoods and were easy prey to predators.  Who knows what became of them?  If they survived, perhaps they were the early settlers of Toronto's own Tent City (also abolished around 2004 -2005).  Waiting for a friend on the patio of Second Cup in downtown Toronto, a resident of Tent City (still standing at the time but not for long) dropped by to tell me several fantastic stories about the secret life of Toronto.  There were no tax funded hospitals to help out this poor demented soul.  He would survive the winter in a tent or whatever he managed to construct from cardboard boxes and other waste material, in a dangerous, often violent, community of outcasts like himself, or he wouldn't.

View from the hill on the West Side. 

 In this documentary, they are always careful not to show Centracare.  A corner appears for just a second and that is it.  Most times the camera shoots from this direction or the hospital is blocked by the Irving Pulp Mill.  

At the 20:39 mark, you can see they were using old film stock from the 70s as the old Irving Gas Station can be seen on the East Side.  That gas station blew up in 1974.  The explosion smashed windows from 5 miles away. Our neighbours ran out of their homes, thinking the basement furnaces were exploding.  My family slept through the event.  Again, this is another piece of Saint John history that seems to be disappearing into obscurity.  Below is an image of the aftermath and a link to the story.  Where does Saint John history go?  Doesn't the old newspaper have archives?

Some people recollect the event here.

aftermath | Very early in the year 1974, Saint John suffered… | Flickr

 

Wolastoq Park, where Centracare once stood.

Then

Now

There is no mention of Centracare anywhere.  The first rule is "Don't talk about Centracare!"

So, over the land that once housed mental patients before abandoning them in the 80's, we have all of these sculptures of more important Saint John people as opposed to, well yeah, the other people we prefer to forget.  That is so cold.  

A large broom factory would have blocked this view of the Pulp Mill but it has been demolished and forgotten too.

Martello Tower.  Closed for the season.

  Carleton Martello Tower National Historic Site (pc.gc.ca)                                      

Large views of the city from Martello Tower.  You can see the breakwater to Partridge Island from here. The church tower blocks the actual island.

It's one of those places that lots of people plan to visit but never do so I turned that way next.  Trusting my general sense of direction, I maneuvered through West Side residential streets to a dead end.  See the video.  Access to the breakwater was blocked by a chain link fence and some uninviting tanks reeking of poisonous smelling chemicals.  But I found the way soon enough, just not that day.

Partridge Island (Saint John County) - Wikipedia