CROWNSVILLE, Md. — The longtime Crownsville Hospital site will officially be transformed from a place "where unconscionable acts were committed against hundreds of Black Americans" to "a space where people can heal."
That's in the new Equity Statement just announced for what will become the "Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park."
Anne Arundel County leaders just finalized the plan for the 500-acre site - a once-segregated hospital that was actually built by its first patients and was marred by brutal medical experiments, dangerous overcrowding, exploitation of the patients to work on neighboring farms, and other injustices.
Over 2,000 Black patients, known and unknown, died at Crownsville Hospital and many were buried on these grounds.
RELATED | Ambitious vision unveiled for historic Crownsville Hospital site
The project could cost roughly $67 million, according to a preliminary cost analysis. (That does not include the cost of razing and stabilizing buildings on the property.)
Creating a "Path of Reverence" is projected to take more than five years, as will installing a more widespread trail system.
The plan lays out short-term plans of creating trails, emergency building demolitions, building stabilization, and installing sports and recreational facilities.
