Seaside, the site of a former sanitorium in Waterford, Connecticut, can finally be redeveloped nine years after becoming the newest state park.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced Wednesday the state will spend $7 million to turn it into a passive park with walking trails.
Deputy Commissioner Mason Trumble said the historic buildings on the site will have to go because of years of decay and neglect.
“Regrettably the historic buildings will have to come down,” Trumble said. “We’re looking forward to working with the friends of Seaside State Park and the local community to find the best ways to mitigate the value of those historic buildings and memorialize the memory of those buildings for future park users.”
Seaside was also a children’s hospital that was closed in 1996.
The state purchased Seaside in 2014, but several attempts to redevelop the state park failed over the years. Trumble said the pandemic fueled interest in state parks and federal coronavirus relief funding will help with Seaside’s redevelopment.
He said the timeline for the redevelopment will likely take at least 5 years, as part of a $55 million package the Lamont administration plans to spend to upgrade state parks, including Talcott Mountain in Simsbury, Gillette Castle in Lyme and to Harkness Memorial in Waterford.
"As the great granddaughter of the architect, I can only say I am very saddened that a way was not found to save the buildings at Seaside, but I do understand that they have outlived their usefulness and would have been extremely challenging to renovate," said Helen Post Curry, president of the Friends of Seaside State Park. "I am looking forward to collaborating with [the state] on the redesign of the park and to finding ways to preserve Seaside’s story and the memory of its historic architecture."
