I always wondered what the long building on the southwest corner of North Taylor Avenue and Washington Boulevard was, and I finally figured it out.
It was the former Liberty Hospital, constructed as an osteopathic institution in 1920 at a cost of $500,000, replacing another small location nearby.
It was originally shaped like the letter H, but the western portion has been demolished, leaving only the wing along Taylor. I suspect it served as low income or senior housing in its last iteration. It is abandoned now.
In fact, I’m a bit surprised that it’s abandoned at all in such a desirable neighborhood. I suspect that it was never properly upgraded after the hospital closed and a lack of maintenance finally caught up with it.
Windows have either been stolen or blown out.
I have no idea why this photograph looks so weird, but you can see that the redevelopers probably thought the best triage was to demolish the western half and turn it into a parking lot, which itself is now empty with the building abandoned.
This building haunts me to this day. My grandmother lived blocks away and when I was a child, there was a child who was found dead in this building and the killer was never found. Well I am 64 year old today and will never forget. That happened in the late 60’s.
Wow, that’s terrible.
This afternoon, I spent about 20 minutes talking to the owner of this building. The owner’s father is a pastor of the church across the street. For many years, he had tried getting LRA involvement and was turned down each time, most recently by the Jones administration. A whole lot of politics has kept this building closed, but the owner is finalizing plans to refurbish the building later this fall/winter.
Patrick, just this week, the building has been fenced off. There is a banner with the Spirtas name on it which makes me think it might be a demo. However, I’m praying it is facing a rebirth of some kind.
Perhaps Spirtas has arrived for just interior demolition in preparation for rehabbing the building.