Historical US Marine Hospital Sits Empty While Veterans Wait for Care?

Louisville's U.S. Marine Hospital remains empty, decade after exterior restored 
WDRB News
By Sarah Phinney
Posted: Mar 29, 2015

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It has been 10 years since the exterior of Louisville's U.S. Marine Hospital in the Portland neighborhood was restored, but the inside remains unfinished.

Several rooms on the first floor are used for meetings and group exercise, but the rest of the old hospital is closed to the public due to safety concerns. Because the outside is restored, Family Health Centers Executive Director Bill Wagner says many people believe the inside is in good shape, too. 

"Little do they know, it's empty," said Wagner. The hospital, designed by Washington Monument architect Robert Mills, opened on April 1, 1852.

Union soldiers were treated at the hospital during the first two years of the Civil War and later World War I veterans. But, most of the patients throughout the years were merchant sailors.

"They may have been injured during their jobs or they may have contracted contagious diseases," Wagner said.

The building later served as living quarters for nurses and doctors in the 1930s, before the City of Louisville purchased it for $25,000 in 1950. It was later turned into office space and is currently owned by the Board of Health, while Family Health Centers oversees it.

Though patients haven't been in the hospital for decades, some of the original features are still intact. read more here