The 100-year-old building that housed the original Providence Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, is being torn down to make way for greenspace at Donnelly College.
The college announced the impending demolition on Wednesday, saying in a news release that the “community is preparing to say goodbye to an old friend.”
The building, located at 18th Street and Barnett Avenue, began as a three-story structure. Over the years, four more stories were added. A distinguishing feature has been the large smokestack on the building’s north side, which Donnelly plans to keep after the demolition as "a nod to our past.”
Donnelly acquired the building in the early 1980s after it moved from its original location on 1236 Sandusky Ave., about six blocks away.
Craig Doty, a spokesman for Donnelly, said after the building is razed, the space will be used for a campus quadrangle.
“It’s going to become greenspace, just like a typical kind of quad you might see on a college campus,” Doty said. “It’s something we currently don’t have. We’re excited for our students to have that area.”
Donnelly, a private Catholic college offering bachelor’s and associate degrees, has about 350 full- and part-time students.
Providence Hospital, now known as Providence Medical Center, moved out of the old building and into its current location at 8929 Parallel Parkway in 1976.
The hospital was founded in 1920 and operated by the Catholic Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. It merged with St. Margaret Hospital in 1971.
Prime Healthcare, a for-profit hospital chain based in California, acquired Providence Medical Center in 2013, along with St. John Hospital in Leavenworth.
Prime also operates St. Joseph Medical Center in south Kansas City and St. Mary’s Medical Center in Blue Springs, Missouri, both of which it acquired in 2015.
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