Evolving Exhibits: Struggles Over Public Memory in Developing “The Willowbrook Mile”

Abstract

In 2016, the College of Staten Island held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Willowbrook Mile, a walking path across the campuses of the college and the Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities’ Institute for Basic Research that would document the history of the notorious Willowbrook School. The Willowbrook School was a state institution for the developmentally disabled that was closed in part because of an expose about the School’s horrific conditions. It took more than a decade for the groundbreaking to occur, and 4 years later, the Mile remains unbuilt. This article traces the development process by examining planning documents and recollections of key participants at the groundbreaking and makes two findings about the development and evolution of memory exhibits. First, the Mile’s slow process reflects that public memory is a contest of identity and difference. Memorializing Willowbrook pits vernacular memory of activists and laypeople committed to social justice for the developmentally disabled against an official public memory that deflects attention away from the state’s role in maintaining the Willowbrook School. Second, the competition between official and vernacular memory led to a both-and compromise where official and vernacular memory appear equally. This compromise appears to be untenable for many involved, leading to continued development delays after the Mile’s groundbreaking. This analysis not only traces the conflict between official and vernacular memory of Willowbrook, but how conflict creates new proposals for memory even as their development remains impeded.