As Mary Lane demolition begins, Ware group fights for health care at that site, local control of trust funds
WARE — With demolition equipment surrounding the former Mary Lane Hospital , locals have not given up on plans to bring back health care to the town.
And they want to do it at the Mary Lane site where care had been delivered for a century.
They even offered to buy the 21-acre, five-building property at 85–89 South St. for $1, said Cynthia Allen Bourcier of Friends of the Mary Lane Hospital. The offer that was not accepted, she said.
"The community built that hospital and paid for that hospital," she said. " Baystate never paid one penny for that hospital."
Three weeks ago, after nearly a year wrangling over remediation and historic preservation, the town of Ware issued Baystate Health's demolition permit for the site. This week, Baystate announced that demolition would start Monday.
The Mary Lane Hospital main building will be spared demolition and advocates in the area want to see it returned to supporting the community's health care needs. August 7, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Plans to call to remove all the buildings except for the oldest. The Wetherby Building, completed in 1923, was once the only building in the hospital complex.
And last month, the Ware Select Board voted 3 to 1 to back Baystate's plan that it control an estimated $17 million in trust funds, including about $7 million from the Lewis Gilbert Trust. And the board also supported Baystate's plans to bring health care back to town, said Stuart B. Beckley, the Ware town manager.
The town has rezoned the property to encourage medical offices, health care and related housing development.
Baystate, in a written statement this week, reiterated plans to create a primary care or convenient care practice located in Ware, not on the Baystate Mary Lane campus. But there is no location and no timeline.
Heavy machinery sits outside the Davis building of the Mary Lane Hospital ready for demolition on Monday. Groups in the area are nervous that the whole site will be demolished, not just the two structures. August 7, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
"We will entertain all offers that represent fair market value for the property," Baystate said in a statement Friday.
Allen Bourcier said the money should be in the hands of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts for use in attracting a new health center — one with more extensive services than the new health care facility should be in the Wetherby Building, which once was the only hospital building.
Beckley said the trust fund issue is now in the hands of trustee Bank of America and the state attorney general's office and will be headed to Probate Court. But there is no court date.
Baystate Health announced in 2021 the phased closure of Mary Lane, a process it completed in 2023. Services for that region of eastern Hampden and western Worcester counties shifted to Baystate Wing in Palmer.
Wing and Mary Lane were competitors until 2014 when Worcester's UMass Memorial Health Care transferred Wing to Baystate.
Ware area residents' mistrust of Baystate has only grown, Allen Bourcier said.
For months residents have gone to select board meeting after select board meeting. Minutes reveal constant questions over activity at the site, the removal of windows, and the lack of a demolition permit.
HKT Architects estimates that it would cost $9 million to $12 million to rehab buildings on the Mary Lane property, according to select board minutes.
Baystate's plan is to leave the Wetherby Building boarded up while it looks for a redevelopment plan.
1/25/2021 -Ware- Baystate Mary Lane Outpatient Center is located at 85 South Street in Ware. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
But Allen Bourcier questions why the building was left without windows, allowing weather damage all winter.
In 2013, Baystate partnered with Westmass Area Development Corp. in an attempt to redevelop the property.
But Westmass hasn't worked on the parcel in about a year and a half, said president and CEO Jeffrey Daley.
And Baystate, in its press release this week, said efforts so far to find a use for the property have been unsuccessful.
Stories by Jim Kinney
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