A plaque at the entrance to the Prouty Garden reads, "The garden will continue to exist at Children's Hospital as long as there are patients, families and staff to enjoy it."
On Dec. 18, 2014, the Boston Children’s Hospital leadership announced plans for a multistory, $600 million new building to include a state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit and more private rooms. The plan calls for the new building to be built on the site of the Prouty Garden — sacrificing the healing benefit it has held for generations of patients and their families.
We fully support and agree with the need for a new clinical building; Boston Children's Hospital is a world-class leader in childhood healthcare, and must continuously grow and change to remain so. However, the Prouty Garden is precisely part of what makes BCH the unique entity that it is, and we cannot afford to lose it.
Other plans to put the new building elsewhere were all deemed unworkable because of a "fatal flaw." We, and many other patients, staff members, and families, believe that the Prouty Garden is this plan's fatal flaw - another way to expansion must be found.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple: to save the Prouty Garden from demolition. We plan to do so through raising awareness about the importance of the garden, and gathering supporters together in order to urge the hospital administration to reconsider its plans.
We want to make it clear that we support Boston Children's Hospital in its goal of modernizing and continuing to provide its excellent level of care. Each individual behind the Save the Prouty Garden campaign is a current or former staff member, patient, or patient's family. We care deeply for the hospital and feel the Prouty Garden is integral to its healing mission.
Boston Children's Hospital performs feats of medical engineering everyday by employing the best minds in the field. We are confident that with the same determination, a workable architectural solution is within reach. Generations of administrators since 1956 have, when planning for expansion, avoided the temptation of the Prouty Garden space. If we let it go now, there will only be need for more development in some ten or twenty years, and another solution will be found. We are urging Boston Children's Hospital to find that solution now, and commit to the preservation of the Prouty Garden in perpetuity.
There has to be a better answer, one that doesn't involved the sacred ground that was Olive Prouty's gift to the children. One that doesn't involve destroying the place where so many children breathed their first fresh air - or some cases, their last.
There has to be a better way.
“Everyone needs beauty, as well as bread, places to play in...
where nature may heal and cheer
and give strength to body and soul.”