It appears that the facility is for sale yet again.. that the property is being sold commercially for $1.5 million in cold hard cash.. Maybe some enterprising fortunate person out there will give them an offer they cannot refuse.
Those who may recall the deeply ingrained history that this hospital had with the coal region will be upset by the fact it still remains unoccupied. The vast shadow of the dark building still casts is memory on the landscape below.. The hospital, which can be seen from every higher point in the area from Fountain Springs to Ashland, is simply now a memory of something gone ..
The need for better medical care was evident in the 1870s.. miners were dying or becoming very injured at their dangerous craft.. In 1879, state legislation was approved to form the State Hospital for Injured Persons of the Anthracite Coal Region at Fountain Springs.
Long name.
Construction of the new hospital began in May 1880 and was completed in 1882. The original building included several wards, an Administrative wing, operating rooms, laundry and a stable.
Originally the hospital could only accept injured miners, railroad workers and textile workers, in that priority order.
No women or children, or people with serious illnesses would be accepted as patients until the early 1900’s.
In the early 1960s, plans were made to build a new facility. The current building was completed in 1967 and the original building was demolished at the same time. The hospital’s name became Ashland State General Hospital over the years.
It was the first hospital Schuylkill County. The state purchased most of the land for $1 per acre, with the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company donating 18 acres, and $60,000 was appropriated by the state legislature for the hospital construction.
John Usalis reported this in the Pottsville REPUBLICAN HERALD in 2012:
In 2001, ARMC filed for bankruptcy protection, with Province Healthcare, Brentwood, Tenn., purchasing the facility later that year. In 2006, the transfer of ownership was made to Saint Catherine Hospital of Pennsylvania, LLC, from LifePoint Hospitals Inc., which became owner in a merger with Province. The hospital was renamed Saint Catherine’s at the time of the purchase.
The closing of the hospital this month was mainly due to major financial problems, including $5.8 million of debt. Lack of medical supplies for patients, workers not receiving their paychecks for weeks were factors cited.
Those workers finally received a portion of their paychecks in December 2013.
There was a public bankruptcy sale in the building on November 29, 2013. Though many of the unattached pieces of medical and food service equipment sold quickly, this was the moment when the building–filled with potential–did not even go for pennies on the dollar:
And it wasn’t just Ashland. A related corporation, Saint Catherine Hospital, closed in 2015 in Indiana from a similar fate..
In March 2015, the St. Catherine’s Hospital property was sold to Ashland Properties, an affiliate of San Clemente, California-based Sovereign Health Group for $550,000. The plan was for it to be a mental and substance abuse treatment center. That idea, though met was controversy among many in the area, promised hundreds of high-paying jobs.
Throughout the years I have written about this hospital and the history there.
The building undoubtedly has issues–though there was a number of renovation projects being done inside, the age of the brick and mortar along with time vacant always creates difficulties for any prospective buyers.
However, being sold for $1.5 mil could be a bargain for a group or even maybe another hospital company. It has a heliport. It has buildings behind that used to serve as a school. It has a full kitchen facility. And yes, though who worked there could tell you the creepy stories, it had a morgue.
There have been thousands over the years who were born and died there. Heck, I was born there! My grandfather died there.
The amount of love that nurses and doctors–not always administrators–used when caring for patients was evident. The lack of a hospital within a close proximity to potential patients in the area has hurt both the mental and physical well being of the region. But also hurting is a largely dwindling population of young professionals and families, an increasingly number of people with substance abuse issues, and an aging population that is passing away from the world never to inhabit their family coal region homes again.
There are two schools of thought.
One is that the hospital’s demise and subsequent blankness is a symptom of the drug-infested depressed region. That there will never be a successful way for a medical facility to thrive.. that the area is done, finished. The only thing someone forgot to do was stick a fork in things.
The other thought, more positive and hopeful, is that a hospital could be born again. That this facility could once again house and care for people who need treatment in the area instead of sending them 50 miles away by ambulance or helicopter.. that it could serve as a bastion of amazing paying jobs and create a new property in an area that desperately needs good news for a change.
Where you side on that argument may also dictate if you see a glass half full or half empty.
During the period of time when the hospital was closed since 2012, I had the opportunity to speak to many people who worked there, and those who were still working there tying up loose ends until the middle of 2013.. After the hospital was shuttered and all of the patients transferred out, there were reports given to me of some odd things. For one, there were constant buzzing noises being heard at the nurses station – no patients were in any rooms, but yet the call buttons were still sounding… Mini blinds were moving without any windows being open… And (this always seems to be a tale told in various locations) there was mysterious woman dressed in all white, appearing ghostly and walking the halls of an old closed down maternity ward on the fifth floor.
And now that boy is awaiting new guests.. new arrivals.
Will he make friends?
Or will this hospital remain closed and eventually become the next eyesore of the region that is slated for demolishing at some point in the distant future…?
TIME WILL TELL.
X X X X X
THE HISTORY OF THE HOSPITAL PRIOR TO THE CLOSURE AND VACANCY:
1879: The State Hospital For Injured Persons of the Anthracite Coal Region became a reality as a result of the efforts of State Legislator John T. Shoener of Orwigsburg. Legislative Act No. 169 was approved on June 11, 1879, providing for the purchase of a tract of land and construction of the hospital.
1880: (May 14) Work on the construction of the hospital began. The construction was completed in early 1882. The ‘main’ building included several wards, the Administrative Wing, Operating Rooms, a laundry and a stable.
1883: (Nov. 12) The hospital opened, only accepting injured miners, railroad workers and textile workers, in that order, as patients. The Hospital did not admit women or non-injured patients until early in the twentieth century.
1883: (Nov 14) The 1st patient was admitted. His name was John Lucas (Shenandoah), a miner injured at the Kohinoor Colliery. Within a year, 313 miners were treated at the Hospital, with a daily average of 75 patients. The number requesting admission far outweighed the bed capacity. Only the critically injured were therefore admitted to the Hospital. In addition, Dr. J. C. Biddle (First Chief of Staff) treated several hundred men and boys for less serious injuries in the “Out of Doors” Department.
1884: First Board Report – it was apparent the Hospital was cold, overcrowded, and lacking in the sanitary conditions needed to treat the injured workers. These problems are listed in the reports throughout the history of the “Miners’ Hospital,” as the Hospital became known after 1904. Before the Hospital was opened, injured miners were transported to their homes to recover or die, or given a pass on the train to go to the Philadelphia hospitals for treatment.
1884: (June) a portion of the grounds was fenced off for a burial place for patients who expired and whose bodies went unclaimed.
1887: a telegraph instrument was placed in the Hospital by Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company.
1889: “Rules and Regulations Adopted” “Patients are not allowed profane or indecent language, or to gamble on pain of immediate expulsion; no smoking in wards or buildings, except in rooms designated for the purpose; no liquors, provisions or medications of any kind shall be furnished to patients by their friends.”
1890/1891: (Sept to Sept) Patients who were able were required to give assistance in nursing or other light duties when requested by the Superintendent. The lack of good mining safety standards at the end of the 19th century kept the hospital filled over capacity. The original 56 beds were increased to90 and as many as 110 patients were cared for at one time. 1414 patients were treated and 567 operations were performed. At this time plans were instituted to provide the patients with hot meals.
Overcrowding was not the only problem at the Hospital during its early years. The building’s radiators and four open fire places in the wards were of little help in the rugged winters. The thermometers often registered 35 to 40 degrees. But despite all the difficulties and primitive conditions, the Hospital flourished and proved its value in the saving of hundreds of lives and limbs.
1890 – 1894: Construction of two new buildings was begun and completed in 1894. One building contained a new modern wing with an operating room and a dining room for convalescent patients, along with the dormitories for the female nurses on the second floor. The second building was a free-standing building which housed the male employees.
1892: The Hospital kept its own horses and ambulance for the speedy transfer from colliery to hospital. The Board asked for the formation of an “Ambulance Society” to be formed by the miners, colliery and railroad officials. The transportation for the injured would be facilitated and men instructed in “first aid” could control hemorrhage and give emergency treatment during the trip to the hospital.
1894: A new era dawned, when after many years of pleading by the Chief of Surgery, four female nurses were introduced at the facility. Dr. Biddle said, “The substitution of gentle, refined and reliable trained women nurses for the rough, untrained, irresponsible, and unreliable men whom we were formerly compelled to accept as nurses, has been a great benefit. The behavior of the patients is better, the discipline and order of all employees is improved. Perfect cleanliness is a matter of course. Most important of all, the wounded and the sick are ministered to with intelligent, educated, thoughtfulness and care; and the skill of the surgeon is supplemented by the watchfulness and knowledge of the trained nurse.’
1894: (July 1) Dr. Biddle again triumphed when he was able to convince the State Legislature to open a School of Nursing at the Hospital. Classes begun under the first Director of Nursing, Minnie Trout, a graduate of Presbyterian Training School of Philadelphia. The first class consisted of 7 students chosen from among 25 applicants. The program was initially for a period of 18 months, but was quickly expanded to 2 years, and finally to 3 years to keep up with the rapid advances in the science of medicine, especially nursing care. Much of the students’ education came from direct nursing care with the patients under the watchful eyes of the Surgeon in Chief and the Director of Nursing. Formal classes were held only two or three times a week.
1894 – 1981: The Ashland State General Hospital School of Nursing graduated 1302 students.
1896: (Dec 1) The first class of 7 nurses graduated. The ceremonies took place in the Ashland Opera House and dignitaries from the coal companies, politicians, and noted medical men arrived by trains furnished by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company.
1904: Further construction at the Hospital – a children’s ward and a ward exclusively for the treatment of burns were completed.
1905: A three-story addition to the nurses’ residence was completed containing 20 single rooms, 3 bathrooms, and a library. This enabled the acceptance of a larger number of student nurses.
1921: A four-story addition was built to accommodate the growing needs of the Hospital. The new wing (the Biddle Wing) provided a Dispensary, X-Ray Department, and a Laboratory on the first floor; a large surgical ward and offices on the second floor; and private rooms and an obstetrical department on the third and fourth floors. Included on the fourth floor was a “special diet” kitchen where the meals for patients with diabetes, hypertension and other conditions requiring food restrictions were prepared. Two hundred thousand dollars was raised by the people of the area, in order to erect the building.
1941- 45: WWII – Ashland Hospital and School of Nursing played a significant part in the second World War. The Hospital was notified to increase enrollment to meet the anticipated need for nurses.
1942: (Mar) The American Red Cross began Nurses’ Aid courses with 15 applicants. In May of 1942 the class completed the course, students received their caps and were required to serve 150 hours doing hospital work. The majority of these women were seen in their pink and white uniforms long after the required hours were completed and proved to be a valuable asset to the understaffed Hospital nurses.
1961: (Nov. 29) The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare announced a 6.1 million dollar, 200-bed hospital building will be built on the grounds of the present institution as a result of legislation signed by Governor David Lawrence.
1964: (April 22) groundbreaking ceremonies took place. The actual construction caused many difficulties since the old Hospital remained in operation during this time, but as the new structure was rising, the difficulties were gradually tolerated by patients, visitors and staff. Everyone waited anxiously for the move to this modern building.
1967: (May 2) the NEW Hospital was dedicated by Governor Raymond Shafer. Eight ambulances from Schuylkill, Northumberland and Columbia counties lined up at various exits of the old building ready to transfer patients. All physicians, nurses and ancillary staff were present. A total of 108 patients were transferred to the new building in one hour and forty five minutes. Each patient was examined by a physician before the transfer and again upon arrival at his assigned bed in the new Hospital.
1967: Demolition of the old buildings began.
1974: (Oct.) a heliport was placed in service and many critically injured or ill patients have been transferred by helicopter to distant medical centers for special treatment.
1985: Divestiture was first announced (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) but never came to fruition until 1992.
1992: (Feb 15) ARMC becomes a reality – PA 21 was hired to manage the facility.
1993: Major renovations were made to first floor of medical center – a remodeled emergency room; Diagnostic Imaging Dept. and a new CT Scanner was added.
1996: (June) Commonwealth Health replaces PA 21.
1998: (Sept) Congressman Tim Holden presents HCFA check to ARMC for 2.2M helping to keep the doors open and serving patients in the tri-county region.
2000: (Fall) Major renovations to 4 and 5 floors were initiated – @11M project (2 years in the planning).
2001: March 31, ARMC Files for bankruptcy protection
2001: August 15, ARMC purchased by Province Healthcare, Inc. Brentwood Tennessee.
2002: (winter) Gary Rhoads hired as the first CEO, Gerry Egan, CFO and Cindy Gorr, CNO
2002: (August 15) Renovation of the 4th and 5th floors was completed.
2003: April 25 ARMC welcomes new CEO, David R. Sirk and 3 new family physicians: Naomi Scearce, MD; Adolph Wychulis, MD and Alan Sweeney, MD
2004: May 1 Cindy Gorr, Chief Nursing Officer at ARMC since the winter of 2002, was named the medical center’s new CEO, replacing David Sirk who was named CEO at the Medical Center of Southern Indiana, another Province Healthcare facility. Final plans revealed for a Medical Office Building (MOB) to be constructed on the front lawn of the medical center’s spacious 25 acre campus.
2005: (April 15) Province Healthcare, Inc. was purchased by LifePoint Hospitals.
2006: May 1st, ARMC purchased by Saint Catherine Healthcare of Pennsylvania, LLC. Craig Hoover is named CEO.
Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs is licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 39 Acute Care Beds and 40 LTCC Beds; and employs more than 250 individuals. It is accredited by both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Joint Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
While training there in 2010, I was told of a ghost of a little girl who was frequently sighted in and around a utility closet. Never saw it myself, but have had my own share of ghost sightings at other hospitals.
Your story sounds like a few I heard from some people over the years. The ghosts just be lonely these days without any patients or action.
My Grandfather Joe Close was an X-Ray technician at the hospital from 1918 till he retired in 1963. 45 years of service
Wow he saw a son of history! Amazing