The Bay City Times - Sunday, September 30, 1956 (Page 28.)
First Mercy Hospital Building to be Razed.
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LANDMARK SOON TO PASS.
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A landmark of another era will fall to the wreckers’ hammer this fall.
The building which housed original Mercy hospital in 1899 will be razed to make way for a parking lot – and, eventually a major addition.
Erected in the 1880’s, the once imposing three-story structure began life as the showpiece mansion of Nathan B. Bradley, lumber & salt manufacturer, congressman, and the city’s first mayor.
In 1898, Bradley learned of the plans afoot for the Sisters of Mercy to open a hospital here. He offered the home for sale at the bargain price of $7,500.
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BY SEPTEMBER 24, 1899, thanks to a successful fund raising campaign, the new Mercy hospital opened its doors. They have never closed since.
There was room for 20 patients in 1899, and the staff numbered six Mercy sisters from Big Rapids. It cost just over $8,600 to operate the hospital the first year.
More than 50 years and four large additions later, Mercy now has a bed capacity of 355, a staff of 14 sisters and some 470 other employees. Operating income for the current year will run close to $2,000,000.
FOUR MERCY sisters who lived and worked in the original hospital are still on the staff. The veteran nuns are Sr. Mary Ligouri, Sr. Mary Baptiste, Sr. Mary Constantia, and Sr. Mary Mercedes. Each has given more than 50 years of her life to the care of sick and needy.
They remember when Mercy in its first years, with its private horse-drawn ambulance. The building stood close by the big sawmills along the riverside – and not too far from the saloons lining Water street.
The top floor of the structure was condemned as a fire hazard in 1925.
By 1948, the entire building had been vacated of patients. The hospital chapel remained in use. Other sections were turned over for storage.
EXPLAINED SR. Mary Maurita, Mercy’s superintendent: “The removal of the original building is a first step in a long-range expansion program for Mercy hospital, and at the same time will give us immediate use of space for parking facilities.”
Sr. Mary Maurita admitted the building was a fire hazard, and that its removal would help lower Mercy’s insurance rates.
The original building will be razed as soon as a temporary chapel has been built in the addition built in 1904.
The 1904 building, too, is scheduled for eventual razing. It will be replaced by a new fireproof structure.
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PLANS TO RAISE funds for the new expansion are now scheduled for sometime in 1958. Mercy hopes to raise approximately $1,200,000.
The hospital is still shouldering a debt of $1,893,000 from the $2,500,000 spent in 1948 to erect the fourth addition. This major expansion, along with additions in 1917 and 1911, were financed by the Mercy order without public subscriptions.
Despite the huge debt, Mercy is continuing to make improvements, aided in part by a recent Ford Foundation grant of $141,700.
A new freight elevator and extra storage rooms are the latest, and another new elevator is planned for the south wing. A complete psychiatric unit for 11 patients has been established on the second floor.
A new recovery room is planned, and operating room improvements will be completed soon as recommended by the medical staff.
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The caption beneath the accompanying photo read:
"Old Makes Way For New – The original Mercy hospital, opened in 1899 will be torn down this fall to pave the way for the eventual erection of a new addition. The old building, reportedly put up in the 1880s, was the showplace mansion of Nathan B. Bradley before its purchase by the Sisters of Mercy. Inset photo, (not shown) Three of the first Mercy sisters to care for the sick in the original hospital are pictured looking at an early hospital report: (left to right) Sr. Mary Constantia, Sr. Mary Ligouri, and Sr. Mary Mercedes. Absent from the photo was another Mercy pioneer, still at the hospital, Sr. Mary Baptiste.
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Bio., Nathan B. Bradley
