Abandoned | Exploring a 20th Century Hospital Left to Rot | St. John’s Hospital, Salina, Kansas скачать в хорошем качестве

Abandoned | Exploring a 20th Century Hospital Left to Rot | St. John’s Hospital, Salina, Kansas

In Winter of 1912, Reverend Father Maher proposed the idea of a catholic hospital to the Sisters of St. Joseph who would then propose the idea to the non-catholic residents of the city of Salina. The idea was widely supported and very quickly donations came pouring in. By Spring of 1913, work on the building would quickly begin. At the total cost of $130,000, or about $4 million in today’s money, the St. John’s hospital would open on June 28th, 1914. The beautiful dark red brick, four-story building was under the protection of dark green tile shingles. The construction included five open-air balconies allowing patients and nurses a place to relax and get some fresh air. The fourth floor was the surgery floor where major and minor operations would happen, sterilizing rooms, restrooms, locker quarters, pharmaceutical, anesthetic, and recovery rooms. The third floor was where the Chapel was with a capacity for a hundred and fifty people. The second floor of the hospital was also the main floor that the front doors lead into. On this floor were reception rooms, the main office, a large banquet hall, suites for the priests and a private vault room where the records were kept. The first floor was where most of the cafeteria operations took place with a dining hall. Many decades of births, surgeries, and life-changing events took place within the walls of the St. Johns Hospital and eventually the name evolved into St. Johns Regional Health Center. In 1995 a decision for what was thought to be the greater good was made with a merger. St. Johns and Asbury-Salina hospitals merged to form a new Salina Regional Health Center. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end for the St. john’s Campus. After the merger, the Salina Regional Health Center began to phase out the use of the campus when they built their new hospital downtown. Most operations were moved to the new building in 2004 with John's campus becoming more and more vacant. By 2010-11 the campus was entirely empty and abandoned. From 2002 until 2015 Salina Regional had made several failed attempts to find a potential developer for the property. Because of the numerous attempts to find a buyer with no success the Salina Reginal Health Center received approval from the Salina Heritage Commission for an application to demolish the former St. John's Hospital campus on December 4, 2013. The decision was ultimately reversed and the Salina City Commission denied the demolition permit in November 2014. This lead Salina Regional Health Center to sue the City of Salina the following month. The lawsuit was filed on the grounds that Salina City Commission violated its property rights by refusing to allow it to demolish the campus. While the hospital was not listed on the state or National Register of Historic Places it was designated as a Heritage Conservation District in 1997 because of its cultural and historical significance to the community. Just a few months later, the former Salina Regional Health Center was sold to the Sunflower Development Group based out of Kansas City in March 2015. With plans to redevelop the property into affordable senior housing using historic tax credits. In order to do this unoriginal portions of the building would have to be removed and the building added to a historic register on the state or federal level. First came the demolition of the unoriginal portion, an application for a certificate of appropriateness, was sought after in 2016 to partially demolish the entrance lobby added to the front of the building in 1958, a covered drop-off area and adjacent one-story wing both added in 1988. Demolition of the newer additions happened the first week of January 2018. The next steps were to work on getting the hospital on the National Register of Historic Places and the Register of Kansas Historic Places. The efforts were successful in getting the St. John's Hospital on the KRHP but the building was not accepted to the NRHP for unknown reasons. Unfortunately, Sunflower Development Group plans also fell through, after years of trying to figure out a way to move forward with the redevelopment a decision was made. In December of 2021, the hospital property was listed for sale in auction for $70,000 to try and find a new owner. It’s unknown whether the property was sold, or is still in ownership via the Sunflower Development Group, but as of today, the hospital sits with massive amounts of mold and decay. So let’s venture inside, and see what’s left.