Back in 2020 Zenning with Zay & I head out to explore this Vacant Lakeside Hospital after a tip from Freaktography.
This Vacant Lakeside Hospital has a long history in the city with heavy French influence. In 1867 a group of nuns from Montreal bought the building & surrounding land & converted it into a Catholic boarding school for girls in the area. After some time it became clear the location of the school was too far from the convent & the property sat empty for several years.
In 1904 a second group of nuns from Montreal to care for the needy, ill & orphans. They needed room to expand & they purchased the vacant hospital to build an orphanage & training facility for nuns in training. Construction began in 1908 as the sisters needed to gather the required funds. The orphanage opened its doors with 24 nuns in training, 5 sisters & 80 children. A few years later the nuns in training returned to their convent as the orphanage wasn't compatible with their training.
By the late 1920's the orphanage housed roughly 200 children & the building was expanded to house more. A decade later the number of orphans had significantly decreased as the social welfare authorities believed the orphans should be with adopted families to help them better integrate with society.
During the Second World War the orphanage was requisitioned by the Department of Defence & the remaining orphans were transferred to the Sister's new house not far away. It was then the conversion to a hospital took place & after the war it was no longer suitable for on orphanage. It was then decided to keep the facility as a hospital to treat the chronically ill as the city did not have such a facility.
Over the years the hospital expanded to what it is today. It specialized in specialized geriatric services, rehabilitation, complex continuing care & palliative care. The hospital finally closed in 2017 when the new, larger facility opened nearby. All services offered at the hospital were moved & the hospital sat empty.
The hospital was sold the same year it closed to a nearby university. In 2020 it was announced the hospital would serve as an overflow facility for the surge of covid patients.
The hospital was mostly empty but there was still quite aa few interesting things! The x-ray room, rehabilitation pool & rehabilitation car were all pretty awesome! The car was definitely some I had never seen or heard of before! All in all a pretty cool explore!