Charity Hospital: An Abandoned Landmark
In a city, rich in history like New Orleans, it easy to look at each building and find the history behind it. One of the most prominent buildings in the city, Charity Hospital, has a unique and complicated story. To properly understand why Charity Hospital, a 2680 bed hospital, sits empty and abandoned in 2017, it’s important to look at the history of how the hospital came to be where it is today and the reasons why it was discarded in the rebuilding of New Orleans. Finally, after understanding those elements, it’s possible to look at a few different reuses for the hospital building going forward.
Charity Hospital was founded in 1736 by a grant left for the estate of a French shipbuilder named Jean Louis. His wish was to fund a hospital for the impoverished population of New Orleans. Until 2005, Charity Hospital was the second longest running hospital in the United States behind only Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Over the years as the hospital’s needs grew, it changed locations and management teams several times. The hospital found its permanent home on Tulane Avenue in 1939, where the 20-story structure became the second largest hospital in country. After being run by the Sisters of Charity for over 100 years, the hospital was passed to the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources in 1970. They retained the management of the facility until 1991, when management responsibilities were passed to the Louisiana Healthcare Authority and then finally to the LSU System in 1997 (Charity Hospital (New Orleans), Wikipedia). LSU would later become a key proponent in the abandoning of the hospital after Katrina.
Up until 2005, Charity Hospital stayed true to its founding roots in being a vital resource for the poor population of the city and housed over 100 beds for psychiatric patients. When Hurricane Katrina hit, like much of the city and its residents, Charity Hospital was not adequately prepared to handle the flooding and subsequent evacuation. There were still a great number of patients in the hospital in the days after the storm. The hospital was flooded and lost power as a result. In a showing of solidarity and understanding of the hospital’s importance to the people of New Orleans after the storm, a combination of volunteers and military personnel numbering over 200 pumped out the water and cleared the debris in the hospital. Charity was returned to a condition that was deemed medically safe and cleaner than before the storm in a matter of weeks (Gratz, R. B.). This is when the controversy surrounding the future of Charity Hospital began.
In 2003, LSU had already begun planning to change the patient mix of Charity Hospital and University Hospital, the other hospital LSU ran in the city, from predominantly public funded patients to private-patient care. In 2004, one wing of charity was converted in to private rooms for private-pay patients. After the incredible cleanup that took place at Charity Hospital, Governor Kathleen Blanco shutdown the project and ordered everyone off the site. Blanco along with LSU officials claimed the site was too damaged from flooding and needed to show that the damage exceeded more than 50% of the replacement cost to receive FEMA funding. In interviews taken from those who were allowed in to the hospital in the months after, there were signs of sabotage found in the form of water faucets left on full blast while the sinks were clogged with sheets and the fuel line to the generator being cut off (Gratz, R. B.). No one was ever connected to the vandalism.
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By 2007, LSU had put forward plans for a facility on a new site in New Orleans on the other side of the interstate that would connect a redeveloped VA hospital to the newly proposed University Medical Center that would cost around $1.2 billion. To salvage Charity Hospital, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana was tasked with raising $600,000 to hire a firm to commission a study on the structural integrity of the hospital. When the funds were raised, they hired RMJM Hillier who deemed the building perfectly suited for a renovation that would cost $550 million and take around 3 and half years (New Orleans Preservation Timeline Project). This plan was never to be realized, because it didn’t fit LSU’s agenda.
LSU moved forward with their plan for UMC and the VA. In the new Master Plan that was approved in 2010 by the City Planning Commission, this project was exempted from zoning restrictions. Although there were never any formal public hearings and no elected body ever voted on the proposal, the new hospitals could be built. It was unheard of for such a large-scale project, 67 acres, to go through without any real oversight. The State of Louisiana used eminent domain to condemn over 260 homes and businesses, many of which had been restored using federal aid after Katrina (Gratz, R. B.). With large portions of local and state funds that will be tied up in the new hospitals for years to come, other projects in New Orleans will inevitably get over-looked, rejected, or lost in the shuffle due to a lack of funding. It is impossible to truly know the social and cultural impacts that resulted from this undertaking, but it has left many residents feeling betrayed.