After going to auction last week, the future of St. Joseph’s Hospital on Peace Street remains unclear. The property up for bid includes the hospital complex and the parking lot which abuts the Peace & Plenty Garden, one of the oldest community gardens associated with the Southside Community Land Trust.

Paolino Properties currently owns both the hospital and the community garden, in addition to several vacant lots in the immediate vicinity. These properties sit just outside the North Elmwood Historic Overlay District, meaning they do not have the protections that come from local historic district status. 

The roughly 250,000-square-foot property was acquired by Paolino Properties in 2017, originally with the vision to use the building for housing and shelter for the homeless. That proposal was met with strong opposition from local residentsand eventually was dropped.

In 2020, Paolino Properties moved to donate the building to the City of Providence to be demolished and replaced by a new public school. That plan fell through in 2022 when the conversion was deemed too expensive and thrown out by the Providence Public School Department.

Today, the complex is back on the market — last week the property was put to bid. As of Feb. 12, the hospital building had not yet been sold, WPRI reported.

Since 1892, the St. Joseph’s Hospital building has seen several iterations, expansions, and changes. While the future of the building remains up in the air, here is a glimpse into its varied past.

The Early Days: St. Joseph’s Hospital for Incurables

The hospital originally was in a mansion on Peace Street, previously the Harris estate, as reported by the Evening Bulletin in October of 1891: “The estate consists of a large, two-story mansion, which contains 18 large rooms. The house stands well back from both streets and is surrounded by ornamental shade trees and shrubs.”

The home’s last occupant was Cyrus Harris, who had lived in the home until 1881.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital was dedicated on Peace Street on March 20, 1892, and then officially opened its doors on April 1, 1892. It was conceived as a hospital for those with chronic illnesses and was called the St. Joseph’s Hospital for Incurables.

“Within [its] walls it is strikingly cheery, with lavish sun and light in all the rooms, and without excuse for bad air. A round of observation within these rooms is both pleasant and painful; the heart contracts at [the] juxtaposition with physical agonies and abnormalities one has shuddered to know in existence anywhere in the world, and then dilates with content and gratitude that here they may be shielded, assuaged, or wholly remedied.”

But a few months later, the hospital staff realized that “larger and more commodious quarters would be necessary,” the Providence Journal reported in December 1892. At that time, there were about 28 long-term residents in the building, the Journal reported — the estimated cost for a new building to accommodate hundreds more patients was $250,000.

On July 2, 1893, the cornerstone of the hospital was laid and the brand-new building officially opened. The ceremony included sermons from various clergymen, and a parade of the Catholic societies of the diocese followed, the Providence Journal reported. At this time, the average cost per day per patient was $1.10.

St. Joseph’s became one of the earliest hospitals in the state to establish a nursing school. The first class graduated in 1902.

The Fire of 1930

In the early hours of Sunday, February 23, 1930, a fire broke out at St. Joseph’s Hospital, which began in a waste chute that ran from the basement to the roof of the building.

“Flame and acrid smoke, succeeded by torrents of water poured into the structure from firemen’s hose, forced 148 men, women, and children patients of St. Joseph’s Hospital into the raw, dank fog of early morning yesterday,” the Providence Journal reported on Feb. 24, 1930. “Nurses, nuns, police, firefighters, civilian volunteers — thoughtless of person security or comfort — bore the sick and maimed, many of them helpless, some of them in critical condition, to the immediate safety of the chill outdoors while, for an hour and a half, a goodly portion of the Broad street institution seemed menaced with destruction.”

Flames engulfed the fourth and fifth stories of the hospital. Eleven children and 14 babies — one born just an hour before the fire broke out — were evacuated first, followed by the remaining 123 adult patients.

Other hospitals and churches stepped in to temporarily rehouse the patients — and miraculously, there were no casualties. One fireman sprained his ankle, but other than that there were no injuries.

“The St. Joseph’s fire was the first hospital blaze ever to occur in this city” the Providence Journal reported the next morning.

“The catastrophe of Sunday morning is certain to interrupt the work of the hospital for some time to come, we know not for how long. It is, however, the fond and fixed purpose of the corporation, of the devoted Sisters in charge, of the members of the staff and of all the nurses and employees to do their utmost to place all the conveniences and advantages of their beloved institution once again, as soon as possible, within the reach of all,” Bishop W. A. Hickey told the Journal.

The damages to the building totaled $89,847 — but reconstruction and renovations cost nearly double that. Construction on a new wing of the hospital had already been underway prior to the blaze, but it was not damaged by the fire.

Less than a month after the fire, patients were readmitted to the hospital once it was sufficiently repaired. There had been a large fundraising effort to repair the structure, with nearly $30,000 raised by March 15, 1930, the Providence Journal reported.

On Oct. 8, 1930, a new wing was completed and added to the hospital. The addition was designed by Ambrose Murphy and built by Charles B. Maguire. It was also fitted with fireproof materials.

The Expansion in 1965

Decades later, St. Joseph’s expanded again, first in 1954, and then again in the mid-1960s.

The original structure — the renovated mansion — was replaced by an eight-story building in 1965. “On the site of the old 20-bed structure now rises an ultra modern eight-floor building of speckled-coral glazed face brick and limestone trim which can accommodate 193 patients,” according to the Evening Bulletin. The 1930 addition, the west wing, was also undergoing interior renovations. The entire project cost over six million dollars.

The hospital’s need for updated equipment and more space — a constant throughout the hospital’s first 75 years — drove the project forward. 

All the patients were transferred to the new eight-story building in just one afternoon so the east wing could be demolished.

Sadly, the Harris mansion was demolished in March 1962. The Providence Journal reported that in its final years, it had served as a convent. The nuns eventually moved to the eighth floor of the new wing, which took two years to complete.

In its first  130 years, St. Joseph’s has served a range of Providence community members as the complex grew and evolved. In its next chapter, it will hopefully continue to serve the South Side community.

By Katy Pickens / Planning & Preservation Writer / kpickens@ppsri.org