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…
Tag: Hospitals
Former Lutheran Hospital, Looking Rough
The old Lutheran Hospital, later known as the St. Alexius Jefferson Campus to distinguish itself from the now-closed South Broadway Campus, and also home to the recently defunct Lutheran School of Nurshing, is looking pretty rough. Working our way around counterclockwise, we see just how much vandalism, illegal entering and other just general dilapidation has…
The Closure of Nursing Homes
The last decade or so has been rough on nursing homes in St. Louis. While readers at first might find the link tenuous to history, they must be reminded that many are in historic buildings, and likewise, neighborhoods are kept healthy when members of society are able to “age in place,” meaning they do not…
Northview Village, Former DePaul Hospital, December 2023
Update: Heavily damaged by fire on December 2, 2024. I think most people have heard the terrible news of the Northview Village Nursing Home closing unexpectedly, forcing the removal of residents and the laying off of employees. The front door is now sealed, a police camera wagon is installed, and of this writing, at least…
Reading Road, Avondale and the Riots, Cincinnati
I’ve looked at Fourteenth Street NW before in Washington, DC, and probably elsewhere, so I was interested in what had become of Reading Road in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. High up in the hills, there were two riots, one in 1967 and then less than a year later in 1968. The first one revolved…
Other Fall Updates, Fires, Demolitions, Etc.
It finally happened, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, which I last looked at back in June of this year, caught on fire and burned to the ground on the night of September 14th. There is certainly no grand conspiracy, but simply the fact that overnight lows reached 50 degrees, and a squatter’s fire probably spread out…
Former Herman Kiefer Hospital, Detroit
Herman Kiefer Hospital sits vacant nowadays, but once it served as the contagious disease treatment facility for the City of Detroit. It’s a massive complex, sitting just to the west of the John C. Lodge Freeway on Taylor Street. It was designed by George D. Mason and opened in 1911. Albert Kahn later added buildings…
Woodward Avenue, Churches and Other Buildings, Detroit
We’ll leave Brush Park behind and turn on to Woodward Avenue at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and head north. Woodward Avenue is perhaps one of the most iconic streets in Detroit, and stretches all the way from the Detroit River all the way past Eight Mile Road, the city limits, all the way to the…
Updates on the Northeast Side
There has been a major collapse of the service wing of the former Jewish Orthodox Old Home. I have been tracking its deterioration, and the last time I photographed this portion of the building, in January of 2021 (second photo), it was already looking unstable. I wonder if the repeated lashing of severe weather recently…
Former St. John’s Hospital
I stumbled upon these photographs of the two former locations of St. John’s Hospital (now known as Mercy Hospital St. Louis, located at the northeast corner of I-270 and Highway 40), and I couldn’t help but want to share them. The image above shows the building at the southwest corner of Lucas and Jefferson avenues….