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Rosewood Center For Mentally Disabled Closing
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Rosewood is a huge institution that housed Maryland's developmentally disabled for over a hundred years. The facility has finally closed its doors Tuesday.
Suzanne Collins has more on what might happen with that sprawling Owings Mills property.
File cabinets are being moved out Tuesday as Rosewood Center closes its doors.
In the 1800s, it was called an "asylum for the feeble minded." People who ran away were put in a room with bars. At least 13,000 Marylanders with developmental disabilities have been housed at Rosewood. The last few employees cleared out their desks.
"As you drive through it's eerie. There's only one building with cars and there used to be 500 employees and almost 200 people here," said Bob Day, Rosewood director.
When it closed, some families who's loved one's had been at Rosewood for decades worried change would upset them. The director said for most, life in group homes has been more fulfilling.
The big question now is what happens to the 200 acre Rosewood grounds.
The most popular plan is one by Stevenson University, to purchase at least 3/4th of the land. Its Owings Mills campus is right next door.
The university says there are some newer buildings it could quickly renovate and occupy, but older dilapidated buildings like this that haven't been occupied for years, it would have to raze.
"There are probably a dozen buildings we think would be usable that we could use as administrative space. For a school of education and maybe a school of therapy," said Tim Campbell, Stevenson Vice President.
At a Baltimore County planning meeting Thursday the Stevenson plan got unanimous support from all present.
"The community was very clear they did not want any high impact residential or commercial development. The infrastructure in Owings Mills is already overtopped," said Delegate Dana Stein.
The university says it would like to build a number of sports fields and possibly buy the last 50 acres and also build an ampitheatre.
The university says its plan is very preliminary and it must first assess the cost of razing old buildings filled with asbestos.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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