Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Parking Garage for St. Joe’s – 1970

Back in September 1970, St. Joseph Hospital in Lorain was promoting the construction of its new 590-car parking garage, as well as an 122-bed addition to follow shortly thereafter. Above is the drawing that appeared in the Lorain Journal on September 1, 1970.

Looking at the illustration, I had a little trouble getting my bearing, causing me to wonder if it was constructed as originally planned. But a quick look at a corresponding Google Maps aerial from the last couple of years (below), however, convinced me that it was just the Reid Avenue viewpoint of the architectural drawing that confused me.

In this Google Maps photo, the oldest part of the hospital,
as well as the Reidy Scanlan furniture store, are shown as vacant lots
Today the St. Joseph Community Center complex is slated for demolition. (You can try reading about it here on the Morning Journal website, which generously allows the non-subscriber to read about one archived article a month.)
For a peek inside the now empty buildings, pay a visit to this intriguing blog, which has some terrific photographs. But be forewarned - the photos are fairly heartbreaking to anyone who spent time over the years in St. Joe’s, whether they were employed there, treated there, visited friends and loved ones there or perhaps – were born there (like me).

2 comments:

Mark said...

So sad what happened to St Joe's - it was a central piece of Lorain history. I worked there when it housed the LCCC satellite branch.

Anonymous said...

I was born at St.Joe's also.In 1971....I also went to the emergency room there on a few occasions.A couple of times I got something in my eye at my place of work so they brought me there.And once when I was a kid I was running through my parents house and dropped a sharp knife and it sliced the top of my foot open.Had to get a few stitches..To this day I always see the scar and think of good old St.Joes...Now it's just an empty building....A reminder of when Lorain used to be a thriving industrial city.Now Lorain is pretty much used up and what's left is not very good.