TRUTH IS THE DAUGHTER OF TIME

A tale that started in the last century  lies forlorn lost and crying out for truth. Truth in politics , in this case  even truth is buried  like rubble in a basement .

The Beginning:
Lorain in Retrospect- JJ Meyers

“Central Lorain became the mecca for real estate operators, led by Mr. Hogan and Wm. A Braman of Elyria….

they acquired the area upon which
“was erected a large three story frame building designed as a sanitarium, in which with the liberal internal and external application of certain water oozing from a nearby spring, a cure for numberless ailments was proclaimed by the promoters.

From Lizzie’s Guide to Lorain
Note:  this was part of the Black  River Historical Society  who  are now Lorain Historical  Society  and no  longer have that link  available …..

The house was called the “Devonian Baths” and was built in 1887 over sulpher springs discovered by accident by Gilbert Hogan, who had been drilling for natural gas. This is one of the early pictures of the hospital.

During the the money stringency in the early nineties (1890’s) a far sighted individual in the person of Father Bihn rector of a Catholic Orphan Asylum at Tiffin. Father Joseph L. Bihn along with Sister M. Ludmilla Schmidt and Sister M. Antonia Adams founded St. Joseph Hospital in a Lorain house in 1892 for children who required immediate medical care and who could not make the long trip to Cleveland, where the nearest hospital was located.

The hospital grew , as did Lorain, and through  it all people died, were made well , were born and money  flowed  just like the Devonshire Springs that remained buried underneath as the edifice  grew.

https://www.tcghohio.org/history-of-st-joseph-hospital

In 1916 a new hospital was constructed to meet the growing population .

In 1950 a larger, modern facility was constructed directly behind and attached to the older buildingSadly, the original 1916 building was demolished in October 2015 due to among other things its unsafe condition.Since 1997 the hospital building was used for several different businesses, including a hospice center, nursing college, county & state offices and a VA center, but it would never serve the community as a hospital again.

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Those  same old  springs  were still bubbling away,as the old and new hospital stood proudly  above them , gurgling and gushing presumably  finding their way  to  the lake.

But  “the witches brew of political speak” comes back  to  haunt all those decades later  ( artist not  found)

So  who  are the “players”  in this century  , how did Lorain’s pride in her hospital end up one of the biggest debacles locally. And we have had many  debacles over the years .

The Players of the Decades:

Fast forward  one hundred years to  1996. The hospital was no  longer viable, times had changed . The Federal Government decided they  would help  out  as they  didn’t want these old hospitals being  white elephants in the middle of urban communities.

Attorney  Giardini

Cleveland dot com

and

County  Administrator Jim Cordes,

among others ,  took  up the project and formed South  Shore Development Corporation

South  Shore then worked to  get tenants into  the facilty and through  the years  offices and a community  center

“South Shore took ownership of the St. Joseph facility in 1997 after St. Joseph Hospital merged with Lorain Community Hospital to create Community Health Partners. An $800,000 federal grant was used to get the building ready for its new tenants. Additional grants and loans were secured The state had $1.4 million in loans invested in the community center, while the county and the city each have $700,000 in loans tied to the center.

and so  the Community  Center  perked along  until the bottom started to  fall out financially….. to  be continued