Last Days for a 1903 Virginia Hospital
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | July 2, 2010
UPDATE, 2/28/11: The hospital was demolished in February 2011.
More than a century ago, a group of women built the first hospital in Danville, Va. This month, the city will tear down the now-dilapidated Georgian Revival building, to its owner's dismay.
The old three-story hospital was condemned in April 1996, according to Jerry Rigney, the city's inspections director. "The building continues to be condemned and unsafe; it's blighting the community; it remains open, and it's falling down." Rigney says that city officials have given residents multiple opportunities to salvage architectural elements from the building.
Built by the Ladies' Benevolent Association in 1903, the 23,000-square-foot structure was a hospital for about 20 years, according to local historian Gary Grant. It served as an apartment building from the 1920s until a fire in 1996.
The current owner of the building, North Carolina resident Cora Tucker, bought it for $1,500 through the city's tax foreclosure process in December 2004. Hoping to restore the building for "community-oriented" purposes, Tucker paid $15,000 for a new roof in addition to attorney fees, she says.
"I didn't find the building; the building found me," Tucker says. "It's like a person. That building, to me, she just needs a makeover. It's a good building; it shouldn't be torn down. It can be saved."
Yet it will cost between $100,000 and $200,000 to stabilize the building, and no one seems to have the necessary funds.
"It's one of the most important landmarks in the city of Danville that is evidence of the citizenship skills of women in the late 19th century," says local real-estate broker Susan Stilwell, whose client offered to buy the building from Tucker after the auction. "I keep wondering, 'Where are the women citizens of this community now that it's going to be torn down?"
"It could be a really beautiful structure if someone could do something with it," says Sonja Ingram, field representative for Preservation Virginia and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "That neighborhood is being revitalized, and if that building could be saved and revitalized, boy, would it really make a difference."
Although Ingram and others tried to find another buyer for the building, Tucker was reluctant to turn the building over to someone else, she says, because she wants it to serve the neighborhood. "The majority of the population is African American, but the owners of the buildings are not. It's a blighted situation. The whole town is a blighted situation."
In 2007, Preservation Virginia named the entire city of Danville one of the state's most endangered historic sites.
Despite a new city program aimed at helping blighted properties, Danville has a long way to go, Stilwell says.
"The attitudes at city hall have made me increasingly demoralized in the last few years," Stilwell says. "They don't see the value of historic properties at city hall. I'm hoping that someone—a last-minute savior—will come forward to give this building a new life. It is such an important landmark."
However, the city has issued three notices to demolish the building, the first in 2006. Now, with no appeals likely, city officials intend to make good on demolition plans. A wrecking crew will raze the former hospital "anytime after July 9," according to Rigney, and the city will cover the cost.
"I don't know why in the world, other than frustration, the city of Danville needs to deal with this by destroying it," says Rob Nieweg, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Southern Field Office, based in Washington, D.C. The city should use the demolition money to stabilize the building to allow time to find an investor, Nieweg says. "It seems absolutely short-sighted."
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Comments
Submitted by Elizabeth Anne at: July 15, 2010
I would be willing to make a beautiful Historic Ornament exactly as the Building looked for sale, all funds will go towards the renovation. Also, if several different people, organizations jumped in we could all get it done together. I know exactly what can happen. Needs to be done, just a fact, then the Building can produce income for the investors. Group efforts always work best. God Bless