Video: Emerson demolishes ‘White House’ as campus overhaul nears
A historic but increasingly weathered part of the Emerson Hospital campus has met its end.
A historic but increasingly weathered part of the Emerson Hospital campus has met its end.
As excavators reduced the “White House” to rubble, a small cadre of staff braved the cold to bid the longtime landmark adieu.
“It’s sad, and yet it’s understandable,” longtime Emerson employee and avid hospital history buff Kenton Blagbrough told The Acton Bridge as sharp-toothed machinery tore into the faded siding.
The demolition will make way for a new emergency department as part of a major campus overhaul.
The aged farmhouse, most recently used for administrative offices and clinical space, was notoriously cold in wintertime. Emerson Health Senior Vice President of Operations Eric Stastny told town officials last year that the building was “no longer suitable to meet current clinical needs and regulations.”
Hospital visitors tapped their brakes to catch a glimpse on February 6 as demolition began. Snowflakes and plaster dust drifted into the air.
The house was one of the last relics of Emerson’s original campus. A town historical assessment said the building’s earlier role as a nurses’ dormitory made it “representative of women’s history in Acton.”
MIT-trained architects Richard Derby and Thomas Robinson had a hand in the house’s 1920s renovation, and an aerial photo from the 1940s shows it looming large over Route 2.
Hospital leaders say they’re pleased with the support they’ve received for their “Transforming Health” project. They plan to memorialize the White House as Emerson enters a new chapter.
Two centuries of history
Part of the White House was built in the early 1800s as a home for farmers James and Susan Brown, according to the town historical assessment.
Emerson bought the building and moved it to the campus “using mostly horsepower,” per a separate historical timeline. The hospital expanded it into a nurses’ dorm in time for a 1927 opening, the timeline said.
Officials later converted the house into administrative offices. Addiction service patients received treatment there. Emerson’s cardiac rehabilitation program was the last to leave.
Now, a more than $100 million campus rework aims to move Emerson’s emergency department into a larger space near the hospital’s main entrance, meaning the White House had to go. Emerson will also demolish the 1960s Community Agencies Building.
Administrators started publicly fundraising for a $60 million share of the project last year. Emerson Health Vice President of Development and Chief Philanthropy Officer Karl Kussin told reporters that they expect to break ground in 2029.
Supporters had donated nearly $40 million as of February 6, according to Emerson Health President and CEO Christine Schuster.
A brief reprieve
Officials originally planned to take down the White House in the fall.
The new cardiac rehab didn’t open for patient care until early January, Schuster told The Bridge. The demolition had to wait. That didn’t affect the larger project timeline, Schuster said in a written statement.
Workers found and safely removed a small section of asbestos from an area around a heater ahead of the demolition, Kussin said. Crews expected to finish razing the house and hauling away debris this week.
Historical Commission members approved the demolition last spring — with the provision that Emerson permanently display educational materials about the White House and salvage pieces of its architecture, meeting minutes show.
“We recognize the importance of honoring the history of the White House,” Schuster said.
Emerson plans to display relics of the house, including a mantel and decorative molding, near the new emergency department.
