The Lakewoods Former South Toledo hospital restored as apartment complex
May 22, 2000
The former Maumee Valley Hospital in Toledo was a ruin and getting worse about five years ago, with Lucas County commissioners on the verge of razing the six-story brick structure.
"We wanted to save it because it was structurally sound and had historical significance, but inside it was a complete mess. It was unbelievable," Sandy Isenberg, president of the Lucas County commissioners, said.
"We had tried to get developers interested in taking the property, but no one wanted it. Now what looked like 'Mission: Impossible' has become 'Mission: Accomplished.' " she said.
The former hospital on the 2100 block of Arlington Avenue near Detroit will formally be dedicated today as The Lakewoods, an apartment building for low-income senior citizens that began to accept residents late last year.
The commissioners reached an agreement in 1997 with
American Community Developers, Inc., of Detroit to turn over the property and
grant a 30-year, $950,000 loan to be used for asbestos removal and interior
demolition. The loan is about what it would have cost the county to
demolish the former hospital in the early 1930s.
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Kerry Heck, maintenance engineer at The Lakewoods, helps finish the new look for the former hospital building. (Toledo Blade photo) |
Except for some minor touches, the dedication marks the
end of work on the project, according to Bobbi Whyte, the building manager.
About one-third of the building's 89 apartments are occupied, she said.
"People are amazed when they come in. I'm not sure what they expect to see - maybe something sterile like a hospital where we just put up some wallpaper and said it was redone," Ms. White said.
The interior of the old hospital was essentially removed from the building. In many respects, the residential area is a new building constructed inside the brick and concrete structure.
"There was really nothing salvageable in the interior," Elisabeth Knibbe, an architect from Ypsilanti, Mich., said. Ms. Knibbe worked as a historic preservation consultant for American Community Developers as they transformed the vacant and heavily vandalized building into apartments. Most of the floors were littered with water-damaged ceiling tiles and the walls had been broken open by vandals and by thieves who stole copper piping. Asbestos was left exposed in many areas.
Any attempt to remodel the interior would have been complicated by the number of times it had been altered while it was used as various types of hospitals, she said. The facility's past includes stints as a hospital for tuberculosis patients and for the mentally ill.
The last patients were moved out of the then county-owned building in 1980.
Ms. Knibbe said much of the exterior still has the original material, although some masonry and brick had to be replaced during the renovation. Gerald Krueger, president of American Community Development, said renovating the building cost about $8 million.
The project "came in over budget, but we're pleased with the result," he said. "And if we had the opportunity, we'd do it again.
One of the main attractions to his firm and to tenants, Mr. Krueger said, is the location.
There is a senior citizens center behind the building and it is located next door to the Area Office on Aging of Northwest Ohio, which occupies what was once the hospital's nurses' home at 2177 Arlington Ave.
The apartment interiors are carpeted with different pastel color schemes on each floor to make them more recognizable to residents.
The only area not carpeted is an arts and crafts room on the first floor, which houses a library and computer room and a small movie theater.
The building has a community room with a full kitchen that can be reserved by residents to use for special events. Donna Naugle, 81, said she and her husband, Charles, were the first people to move into the building in late January, moving from an apartment in Maumee.
"There is a lot of open space and trees nearby. My husband and I have always liked that," Mrs. Naugle said. She echoed what Mr. Krueger said about the services for senior citizens nearby.
Charlie Pearl Cobb, 77, has been in the apartment building for about six weeks after selling a home on Norwood Avenue that she had occupied for more than 35 years.
"I didn't want to move, but it was getting hard to use the steps," Mrs. Cobb said. "Now that I'm here though, I have no regrets."
~ The Toledo Blade
