Lutheran Hospital - Vintage Buildings and Structures of the Monumental City

Photos by Adam Paul

If there is one thing for which the Baltimore area has become well recognized over the past few decades, it would certainly be health care. Thanks in large part to the Johns Hopkins and University Hospitals, and their well regarded practice and instruction programs, the Baltimore region has become world-renowned for its ability to diagnose and treat those with a wide range of ailments and diseases. People come to Baltimore from around the world to benefit from its first grade staff of physicians and specialists.

So with such a reputation, one would assume that the hospital business here would be universally booming?

Not quite...

Enter the sad and eerie world of the one time Lutheran Hospital, a west side institution that lasted for decades, even though it never seemed to be all that thriving. Unlike its neighbors closer to Downtown who have boomed, and who have built expansion after expansion, Lutheran sits in its Rosemont area looking forlorn and pitiful, a fascinating and creepy eyesore that hulks over its neighboring community.

Lutheran's history dates back to 1873, when a fanciful building opened on today's Northeast Corner of Dukeland Street and Rayner Avenue called the "Hebrew Orphan Asylum." Funded by wealthy Jewish families, the building, with its ornate brick construction complete with octagonal turrets, was, at its opening amid a virtual no-mans land at the time, rising on the Western banks of the Gwynns Run valley, amid land that was either developed for farming or not at all. In time, an expansion building, funded by Bernard Cahn, opened just to the north of the original building in the mid 1900's.

As time passed on, the old Orphanich would close its doors in 1923, but would reopen in 1924 in the new incarnation as a hospital, called the "West Baltimore General Hospital," It was a suitable reuse for the building, and a needed addition to a community whose population had grown rapidly in the first quarter of the 20th Century. In time, the hospital facility would gradually expand to other, newer buildings, such as one on the Northwest corner of Ashburton and Rayner, which was abutted to the original Orphan Asylum.

A 1924 photo shows off the newly opened "West Baltimore General Hospital," which opened in what was originally the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.

Despite its growth, the hospital did experience its share of troubling times, including a well publicized fiasco in November of 1937, in which 17 of its staff members resigned at once, in a protest of unpublicized nature, but likely due to unhappiness with management. The hospital tried its best to alleviate the setback, and managed to soldier on in spite of it, ultimately bringing in new management.

In July of 1950, West Baltimore General Hospital would be no longer, with its name changed to the "Lutheran Hospital," the name by which it is most remembered. Just after this time, the Rosemont neighborhood would transform into a predominately African-American neighborhood, and Lutheran became known as one of few places where African-Americans could seek medical attention without discrimination. Lutheran brought about an ambitious attitude for the future of the facility, and would aggressively solicit contributions for upgrades and expansions to the facility. A building would open across from the 730 address at 731 Ashburton Street, largely matching the build of its complementing facility.

At one time, before the footing of the ultimate idea of opening a new facility across the street, this plan was envisioned to integrate a modern facility into the existing buildings on the original Lutheran site.

In May of 1963, however, a radically new expansion to Lutheran Hospital opened on the East side of Ashburton Street, adjoining the building at 731. Built in a modern style of concrete construction, the building consisted of a central block portion flanked by a pair of low-profile wings that gave the building a massive and impressive look from far away, an effect that is quite convincing. The new opening, along with an expansion of nearby Bon Secours Hospital, was largely responsible for Franklin Square packing its bags in the late 1960's, leaving its namesake community, and heading for Rosedale in Eastern Baltimore County.

Following this first wave of growth, the hospital began to fall on a continued wave of hard times. Rumors circulated in 1968 that Lutheran's Nursing School would close, and it did indeed in 1969. While a new Child Care Unit opened in October of 1975, the financial picture for the facility continued to suffer. By January of 1977, it appeared that the hospital's fiscal picture was improving after several consecutive years of nearly half-million dollar deficits, but this optimism proved to be short lived.

After applications to raise its rates in 1981, Lutheran faced tremendous hurdles by the state regulatory board, who was advising smaller hospitals like Lutheran to consider mergers in order to cut costs. It would be six more years, but indeed a merger would occur, in 1987, when Lutheran came under the control of Provident Hospital, in the formation of the new "Liberty Medical Center."

In spite of this merger, the woes continued. The resulting Liberty management stated that it just did not have the resources to be able to properly operate both facilities, and as a result, Lutheran Hospital would close in 1989. Liberty would later merge into Bon Secours, and its Provident facility on Liberty Heights Avenue would become more of a medical facility than an in-patient hospital.

With 15 years now passed since its closing, most of the Lutheran Hospital facility looms like a White Elephant on the surrounding landscape. Among the complex, only the 730 building remains in use, as the Tuerk Center for rehabilitation. Coppin State has acquired the building at 731, and has fronted plans to rehabilitate the old Orphanich building into a magnet school and mentoring program for neighborhood children. To date, nothing has yet to pass. Hopefully, the facility may once again become a source of rejeuvenation and health for what has now become a rather ailing community.

Map of Lutheran Hospital Facility
Map of Lutheran Facility

1 - Original Orphan Asylum
2 - Cahn Building
3 - 730 Ashburton Street (Tuerk House)
4 - Power Plant
5 - Overhead Bridge
6 - 730 Ashburton Street
7 - 1963 Expansion
8 - Rosemont Medical Center

Lutheran's roots begin in this building at the Northeast corner of Dukeland and Rayner, in what was originally the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, beginning in 1873.	Entry way into the old facility invokes a particularly eerie feeling, with the empty windows and ornate architectural styling.
Only the word "ASYLUM" is fully visible above the entryway to the old building, the rest overgrown with ivy. This coincidence makes the facility ever more creepy in nature.	Though the boards label this entrance as "730," it is actually on the odd side of Dukeland Street. This is the Kahn building, a later addition to the Orphan Asylum, which likely became the Nursing School once the facility became a hospital.
Dedication on the Kahn building is from Bernard to his wife Hannah. Date reads "1904."	Roof timbers on the Kahn Building show a peculiar shape that seems to mimic a Boar's head.
An odd juxtaposition can be witnessed where the much later built overhead walkway meets the 730 building. Behind is the smokestack for the facility's power plant. Street in foreground is Lanvale Street.	From a much more distant perspective, one can see the destination for the overhead walkway - the building at 731 Ashburton, which is seen running off the left of the photo.
The 731 building complements the facilty at 730 well. Its vintage not known, the buiding is under the ownership of Coppin State University, who keeps it up while its ultimate fate is decided.	The 1963 expansion looks much like most hospital buidlings built during this era. Its forlorn state however may make it the eeriest structure on the property, departing the gothic spooky look of the Asylum for a more post-apocalyptic appearance.
A close up of one of the wing ends of the "new" Luterhan Hospital, showing good details of the interior rooms. Despite a large appearance from afar, the illusion of massiveness lessens once you get closer to the facility.	Loading dock on the Braddish Avenue side of the new building shows the extent to which the facilty has had to be boarded in attempt to secure it. One can only wonder the vandialized nature of the interior.
Abutting the rear of the new section is the Rosemont Community Doctors Center. Little is known about the nature of this facility, and whether it was abandoned concurrently with the Hospital.

INFO ON OLD LUTHERAN? CONTACT ME!