St. Joseph's long course: growth, the burn center, the sale, and the closing of 2021

1929 — 13 November 2021

One hundred fifty-two years on Broadway: The hospital the sisters opened in a converted hotel grew into a nine-story institution of more than four hundred beds. The Broadway building that stood at the end was built in 1929. St. Joseph's signature service in its modern decades was the St. Joseph Regional Burn Center, the only burn center in northeastern Indiana — a specialty the Broadway hospital carried until its last day, when the burn unit moved to Lutheran Hospital's Jefferson Boulevard campus. The Poor Handmaids owned and operated the hospital for 129 years, until 1998, when they sold it to Quorum Health Group; the proceeds of that sale founded the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation in 1998, endowed at $20 million, which continues the sisters' health mission in grant form. A sister of the order sat on the hospital's board until Sister Langhauser's departure in 2013. The ownership chain after the sisters is the chain this section meets again at Lutheran: Quorum was absorbed by Triad Hospitals in 2001, and Triad by Community Health Systems in 2007, which placed St. Joseph inside the Lutheran Health Network. The end was planned as a replacement, not a collapse. Lutheran Health Network announced a replacement hospital on 20 September 2017 and finalized the plan in December 2018: Lutheran Downtown Hospital, sixty beds and 194,000 square feet at Main and Van Buren streets, built at a cost of $118 million. On the morning of 13 November 2021 — the hospital closed at 5:59 a.m. — St. Joseph's remaining patients and staff transferred next door to the new Lutheran Downtown, which opened the same day, and Fort Wayne's first hospital closed after 152 years. Demolition of the 1929 building began in February 2022; the building caught fire in May 2022 during the demolition work, the razing was completed in 2023, and the Broadway site became parking for the hospital that replaced it.

Sources:

1. FortWayne.com, "Downtown Hospital" — St. Joseph as the city's first hospital, founded 1869; the standing building built in 1929; the 13 November transfer of staff and patients to Lutheran Downtown and the closing.
2. Becker's Hospital Review — the 5:59 a.m. closing on 13 November 2021, the same-day opening of Lutheran Downtown, and Lutheran Downtown's sixty beds, 194,000 square feet, and $118 million cost; the replacement announced 20 September 2017 and finalized December 2018.
3. Input Fort Wayne — the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation founded from the 1998 sale proceeds, endowed at $20 million.
4. Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and Lutheran Health Network accounts — the 1998 sale to Quorum Health Group after 129 years, the sister on the board until 2013, and the Regional Burn Center's move to Lutheran's Jefferson campus at the closing.
5. Contemporary Fort Wayne press, 2022–2023 — the February 2022 start of demolition, the May 2022 fire during demolition work, and the completion of the razing in 2023.