Accountability through history
Public interpretation should include harms, policy failures, and lived experience — not only architecture or nostalgia.
Public Memory · Disability Rights · Historic Stewardship
Advocacy & Preservation
This page is organized in two parts: advocacy first (why this history still requires public accountability), then preservation (what can be protected right now through CORE 4 priorities and practical stabilization work).
Advocacy
Advocacy at Fernald is not just about remembering a site — it is about centering disabled people and families in how this history is interpreted, taught, and acted on today. That includes confronting institutional harm directly while preserving records, testimony, and place-based evidence.
Recent scholarship and public writing by Alex Green emphasizes that institutionalization is not distant history, and that serious disability-rights work requires archival access, honest interpretation, and ongoing civic accountability. His work has helped push these conversations into mainstream legal and public policy contexts.
Accessibility of memory
Historical materials should be discoverable, usable, and contextualized for researchers, families, educators, and self-advocates.
Disability-led leadership
Decisions about interpretation, memorialization, and future public use should include disability-led input at every stage.
Preservation (CORE 4)
The Fernald CORE 4 brief identifies high-priority structures and proposes immediate interventions to reduce preventable loss while long-term planning and funding are pursued.
Preview images open in a lightbox. Use the PDF for full text and citation-ready detail.
Priority buildings
Schoolhouse & Gymnasium, Activity Center, Chipman Hall, and Waverly Hall are treated as the core preservation cluster.
Near-term protective actions
Secure openings, repair fencing, and patch roof penetrations now to slow ongoing damage from weather and vandalism.
Bridge strategy
Immediate stabilization is framed as a bridge to restoration planning, grants, and broader preservation financing.