11 Most Endangered
Charity Hospital and the Adjacent Neighborhood
Year Listed: 2008
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Deterioration, Development, Poor Public Policy
Click here to learn more about what's happening now at Charity Hospital and Mid City in New Orleans.
Charity Hospital and the Adjacent Neighborhood
Historic homes in the Charity Hospital neighborhood. Photo by Walter Gallas.
Charity Hospital and the Adjacent Neighborhood
Historic homes in the Charity Hospital neighborhood. Photo by Walter Gallas.
Charity Hospital and the Adjacent Neighborhood
Charity Hospital. Photo by Todd Callender.
Charity Hospital and the Adjacent Neighborhood
Charity Hospital. Photo by Walter Gallas.
Once a prestigious center of medical training and a beacon for public health care, Charity Hospital now faces an uncertain future. Surrounded by flood waters when Hurricane Katrina shattered the levees around New Orleans, the Art Deco icon has been shuttered and vacant for nearly three years. Despite its legendary role in serving hundreds of thousands of uninsured patients and the critical need for medical facilities in New Orleans, this historic building continues to languish and remains vulnerable to demolition.
What you can do
- E-mail Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, or call his office toll-free at 866-366-1121.
- E-mail Louisiana Secretary of Health and Hospitals Alan Levine or call his office at 225-342-9500.
- E-mail The Honorable James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the basement of Charity Hospital suffered water damage and some of the electrical and mechanical systems were damaged or destroyed. After the water receded, the medical community, the military and a number of volunteers pumped out the flooded basement, cleaned up the debris, and restored electrical power to make the building usable again, but the doors to the hospital were permanently locked when the building was deemed unsafe and unusable by the Louisiana State University (LSU) Medical System.
At present, LSU is moving forward with plans for a new medical complex alongside a new facility for the Veterans Administration (VA). In addition to abandoning Charity Hospital and the former VA facilities, the plans for new construction call for the demolition of some 200 homes and buildings constructed prior to 1880 in 25 blocks of an adjacent National Register Historic District, despite the existence of a largely vacant site nearby. In addition to providing homes for hundreds of people, the Mid-City neighborhood is also the location of several significant, historically important buildings, such as Deutsches Haus, a German social organization from the 1920s, and McDonogh No. 11 School, which dates to 1879.
Today, preservation groups are rallying to save Charity Hospital and protect it from deteriorating beyond repair. Beginning with an intervention grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, in fulfilling its charge from the State Legislature, is continuing to raise funds for an independent assessment of the building. The Foundation has hired RMJM Hillier of Philadelphia to assess the building's overall structural condition and its potential reuse for medical services. Grassroots organizations are also leading the charge in raising awareness on both a national and local level and galvanizing efforts to determine viable alternatives for the facility.
"The reuse potential as well as the architectural and cultural significance of Charity Hospital should not be ignored in the process of determining the fate of this historic treasure," says Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "We cannot afford to stand idly by and allow the loss of such a valuable and architecturally significant building, along with the destruction of a large portion of the nearby historic neighborhood."
Charity Hospital is the premier example of Art Deco architecture in New Orleans and carries with it a historic legacy that reaches back more than 250 years. Classically designed with streamline elements, the H-shaped building was designed by the firm of Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, which also designed the Art Deco State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Founded in 1735 to serve the indigent, Charity's social impact derived from its commitment to progressive health care for the poor. In addition to being the second oldest continuing public hospital in the United States, Charity was the second largest hospital in the nation until it was closed in September 2005.
For Press inquiries: http://press.nationaltrust.org/
