General Hospital Demolition

[Motleydru]

I seen this live when i was 11

[kimmage129]

Wow they are actually cheering

[shikamaru990]

As a question, what's on that site now? St. Joesph's Hospital?

[corey71]

@shikamaru990 - there is now a small government office for unemployment and a credit counselling services office - small. You can see them at the end of the video - small gray 1or 2 floor buildings - they are hard to see. St Joseph's hospital is 100-200 meters away from this site.

[musicsinmysoul256]

@shikamaru990 no but its about 100 meteres away the footage was actually shot up the street from my house

[tiburon03]

I was born there but even I realize that if we keep all the old buildings and say they were historic, we will never grow as a city, it would have cost alot more to bring that building up to code then to have it brought down and a more modern building put in. I liked the building but jobs for the city are much nicer.

[packrat79]

Indeed, a sad waste of an historic building. But these days, it seems like nobody cares about heritage anymore. Well at least we have pictures and videos like this to remember it by. I have a collection of news footage I may someday upload too.....

I wanted to be there for this event, but it was scheduled for 7:00 a.m. and I live 2 hours from Saint John. I didn't know it got delayed until 1:30 p.m (because of high winds)., so I could have made it after all. Bummer.

[hfqbm]

@packrat79 How can you say no one cares about heritage anymore, especially when it comes to Saint John. Have you been uptown?

[packrat79]

Perhaps I should rephrase that. It might be more accurate to say that people don't care about saving heritage buildings, unless it makes good financial sense. That's why the old hospital wasn't saved - it would have been a huge financial loss. I guess the real fault lies with the politicians who closed it in 1982, and then left it to rot rather than using it for something. But of course, politicians aren't known for making wise decisions.

[maddmaxstar]

The old hospital was a beautiful example of 1930's art deco architecture, it was easily the best looking building in the city in it's prime. Once the Regional was built in 1983, they closed it down. Rumor has it that it was left trashed after it was used for lodging for athletes during the 1985 Canada Games.

In the end it had become an eyesore covered in broken windows and graffiti, but they never should have left it vacant to decay like that in the first place.

[33HABSrule]

i rember that , they were so fucking stupid in doing that the hospital was over 90 years old it was a land mark an for what isnt it a callcenter there now ?

[maddmaxstar]

The site of the General is still mostly vacant. They built a new Service Canada office where the back parking lot and rear wing of the building was, but the hill on which the building sat is now just a grassy bump on the Saint John skyline. What a waste.

[garycalgary]

so a waste of a demolition?

how stupid

[tys430]

I was there and I was 2 or 3

[lostinthemonitor]

I was born in the hospital. It is sad that the piece of land was never developed more than it was. A one story building now sits on that land, and an ugly one at that.

[khimosaubi]

Haha I was there too.. I was only 8 tho lol

[blacknight19853]

i was there that day i was about 11 then