Blog: Safety Complex Updates

Week 41: Cafeteria Demolished, St. Joseph's Wing Coming Down

Many a family over the years passed worrisome hours - or possibly eagerly awaited a baby's delivery - by grabbing a quick bite at the St. Mary's Hospital cafeteria.

As the reconstruction of the vacated North Knoxville site continues, it was inevitable that the cafeteria would be demolished. Yet this non-descript piece of the hospital - the communal gathering place where sandwiches, snacks or a cup of coffee could be procured - was among St. Mary's most visited components.

"There really was no useful repurpose for the cafeteria itself - but that doesn't mean it wasn't recognizable to thousands of families," City Community Empowerment Director Charles Lomax said.

"It's good and worthwhile to always remember what St. Mary's was, and the skill and kindness of its doctors and nurses, over so many decades. But it's also good to see an empty campus getting a new second life, and the historic buildings being preserved and reused."

Last week, Resnascent crews demolished the decades-old cafeteria. Pictured below are the site of the cafeteria, and a truck hauling off debris following the razing of the cafeteria.

Here is the site of the former hospital cafeteria.

Here is the site of the former hospital cafeteria.

Debris from the razed cafeteria is being hauled from the site.

The Renascent crews this week are continuing the mass demolition throughout the St. Joseph's Wing (pictured below).

Meanwhile, here is a photo of the Central Wing footprint, and below that, the Women's Pavilion mechanical room, where a crew from Environmental Abatement Inc. is working this week.

C-Wing footprint

Also, at the Tuesday, Dec. 1, City Council meeting, the Council approved an agreement allowing Knoxville/Knox County E-911 to lease 18,000 square feet in the former Women's Pavilion for E-911's emergency backup facility. Click HERE to see WBIR's report.

The City is converting the vacated Professional Office Building, Central Wing Annex and Women's Pavilion into new office space to house the City's Police, Fire administration, City Court, Pension System and some E-911 operations - a $40 million community and blight-fighting investment. The move-in is scheduled for early 2022.

Lincoln Memorial University next month will be reopening the renovated Magdalen Clarke Tower and offering nursing classes.

The iconic 1929 Building, which was the original St. Mary's Hospital, is being preserved. It and the entire north end of the site will eventually be available for private redevelopment, once the buildings that cannot be repurposed are razed. The north-end site preparation is an additional $6.5 million City investment.

Posted by evreeland On 02 December, 2020 at 12:42 PM