Monday, October 5, 2015

Goodbye, St. Joe's

Well, the fences are up and the equipment has been put on site and is ready to go. That means that the demolition of St. Joseph’s Hospital – as well as the former Reidy-Scanlan building – is finally going to take place. It may even have already started by the time you’re reading this post.

I first wrote about the proposed demolition on the blog back in August 2013 here. It originally was supposed to be done by the spring of 2014.

There’s been some interesting comments made on the Lorain, Ohio By Photos Facebook page. For every comment in which someone remarks how sad it is, there’s another where someone takes the City’s position and bristles at the idea that the building should be spared, citing how expensive it would be to rehabilitate it.

All I can say is that it’s impossible for anyone over the age of fifty with Lorain as their hometown not to feel a little bit sad about it. Not merely because most of us in that age bracket were born there, but because for decades it was the place we went to get healed and feel better. A lot of us came into the world there, and some of our family members left the world there too.

It’s a special place.

Anyway, I headed over there on Sunday to get some last looks at an old building that was very important to Lorain for many years.


6 comments:

-Alan D Hopewell said...

It's hard to believe that St. Joe's is gone, and about to be torn down; will the last person to leave Lorain please turn off the lights?

Mike Kozlowski said...

...My mom spent 42 years as an RN there. After she retired, she used to joke about getting a crew of retired nurses together to steal the statue of St Joseph and make sure it was saved when they eventually tore the place down.

Mike

Kathaleeny said...

Mike Kozlowski - I bet your mom knew my Aunt Tonnie, Sultana Faroh Toth. She was an executive secretary there all of her life. I was born there. My grandma Faroh lived right behind St. Joe's on Reid Avenue. My Grandpa Dunnigan was the maintenance man there for many years. That hospital was important to many, many people.

Thank you for posting these pictures. I see the window from where my Dad waved to me when he had his gall bladder surgery.

Wireless.Phil said...

Both parents died there, cancer.

In other news, the Veterans clinic in moving.
I've got no way to get to Sheffield, don't know how I'll deal with that?
chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2015/10/06/breaking-lorain-va-clinic-to-move-temporarily-to-former-community-new-life-hospice-in-sheffield/

Anonymous said...

wow, this will be it: Masson , AKHS, First Lutheran, and now St. Joes...gone. My son the last of my family born there. Almost 22 years ago. Has to come down, but sad none the less.

32 years ago I had renowned knee surgery performed, saving my leg, and future career. Times changed quick.

Unknown said...

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