The Pacific Alliance Medical Center, formerly the French Hospital, is closing next month.
Putting aside the fate of one of the last surviving relics of LA's obliterated French community (I'm sure I don't need to comment on how I feel about THAT), there is the issue of downtown LA still needing hospital facilities.
When the hospital changed hands in 1989, it came very close to closing entirely, and was saved by a hardworking team of medical professionals, local Chinatown residents, and a generous benefactor in Japan. The 1980s was a rough decade for downtown, and several hospitals in the area (chief amongst them Linda Vista) closed entirely.
To date, I have mapped over 400 French-associated sites in Southern California. The French Hospital - the site where this journey began - was the first place I mapped. The French Hospital survived some of downtown's darkest days...only to be felled 28 years later by the cost of earthquake retrofitting (as I don't have a legal or medical background, I don't feel qualified to comment on the lawsuit mentioned in the linked article).
What will happen to the building? I wish I knew.*
The hospital building has no landmark status or other protection (in spite of being LA's second-oldest surviving hospital**...and in spite of the long-empty Japanese Hospital in Boyle Heights being landmarked).
For once, I don't have any pithy commentary to add. I'm too sad.
*I know it's not the original building from 1869. However...Chinatown legend has it that part of the original adobe hospital building is encased somewhere within the current facility's walls. If the building ends up falling to the wrecking ball and a section of 158-year-old adobe wall turns up, SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME. If it still exists (and I realize this is an extreme long shot), it belongs in a museum. (Even if it's badly damaged and looks like hell, if it's survived at all, it's still part of our heritage and still worth saving.)
**The article claims the French Hospital is LA's oldest. It's not - St. Vincent's is older. Also, the hospital was established in 1869, making it 158 years old, not 157 as the article claims.
I would like to coordinate with you on incorporating several pages on the L.A. Frenchtown before I finalize our second volume for the period 1841 to 1856. The book connects the dots on the French-towns, Settlements, and Prairies established all across the continent.
ReplyDeleteThe first volume was published in Montreal last year - "Songs upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Metis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific." Available via Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, and the Southern California Genealogical Society.
I will try to fly down for the weekend in Feb.
Rob Foxcurran
206-898-5608
Hello Robert - I do work some weekends but I'm giving a presentation on Feb. 17 (see my latest entry) and could meet you later. Let me know what you would need from me.
DeleteI would like to coordinate with you on incorporating several pages on the L.A. Frenchtown before I finalize our second volume for the period 1841 to 1856. The book connects the dots on the French-towns, Settlements, and Prairies established all across the continent.
ReplyDeleteThe first volume was published in Montreal last year - "Songs upon the Rivers: The Buried History of the French-Speaking Canadiens and Metis from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi across to the Pacific." Available via Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, and the Southern California Genealogical Society.
I will try to fly down for the weekend in Feb.
Rob Foxcurran
206-898-5608