By 1966 it had changed its name to Wayne County Child Development Center, but seems to have “distinguished” itself only one last time in 1974, by being among the first of the old training schools in America to close down in favor of community placement. Up to that time Wayne County stubbornly refused state control of WCTS (in contradiction of later mental health law that made care of the retarded a state burden—ironic, considering the law came into existence as the eventual result of the gradual changes in care of the retarded brought about by the WCTS’s original mission), even when another state institution for the retarded, the Plymouth State Home & Training School, was opened across Sheldon Road from it in 1958.

          Scandals aside, there were many success stories from children who resided there, and the WCTS managed to retain a fairly impressive rate of returning residents to the community throughout its history. Of 7,421 children admitted since inception, 6,881 had already been discharged to the community by 1971. Average time in residence for that year’s 184 discharges was one year, nine months. ¹¹⁴  In his annual report for 1966, Superintendent Buoniconto touts another impressive statistic, that “the average age of the children in the school for the past ten years is practically the same as the average of the population at the end of its first five years of operation,” ¹¹⁵  meaning that somehow despite being called a “dumping ground” for all kinds of troubled cases, it managed to maintain its quick turnover rate instead of indefinitely housing ever-swelling numbers of hopeless children without offering any training whatsoever. Another remarkable statistic presented in his annual report from 1965 was that out of over 6,400 total admissions, only 15 WCTS residents ever had to be readmitted since opening 40 years prior. ¹¹⁶

Reservoir Dam In Hines Park

          The Wayne County Training School was demolished in 1998, though part of the old brick gatehouse still stands on Sheldon Road north of Five Mile, and the cobblestone ruins of its waterwheel still sit on the Rouge River at the Meads Mill picnic area of Hines Park.