Old San Jacinto Hospital on Decker Drive

The Old San Jacinto Hospital is a very important structure to the people of Baytown. It shows not only the good, but also the ugly. This building is not only a place for homeless civilians, but also the last destination for some people. It was built in 1947 by W. S. Bellows and architected by Kenneth Franzheim and donated to the city of Baytown by Humble Oil, which is now Exxon-Mobil. The board of trustees consisted of John M. Kilgore, Thomas W. Moore, Robert Matherne, Hugh Echols Jr., Gordon L. Farned, C.I. Fortinberry, Joe Reid. The Old San Jacinto Hospital sits on nine acres of land and has 391,064 square footage.The hospital has been sitting empty since 2003 due to the lack of keeping it clean and sanitary. I may not be able to remember ever walking through this hospital as a youngster, but I can feel the good it has done for Baytown and the people within the city and surrounding area.

When it was a hospice, there was a cat that would lay by a patient right before he/she would pass away. In early 1948, the hospital installed a morgue into the bottom floor of the hospital. The San Jacinto Memorial Hospital was the only one of its kind in the area to have a morgue, which made it more of a dead zone. The hospital had gone into foreclosure and was said to be listed for $750,000. The new of the property (Superstars LLC), which is a company owned by Sanjay Verma. He says the hospital will be transformed into a multi-use retirement center. Methodist sold the 391,064-square-foot building to Goose Creek Retirement Community Inc. in 2006, after moving its San Jacinto Hospital to a new location in 2003. Unfortunately, Goose Creek was not able to raise the funds needed to renovate the building because of the economic crisis.

           There are many unexplainable things that still lurk around each corner of every hall. While it was running, many people saw it as a hospital and nothing else. Now people see it as a symbol of Baytown and a haunted hospital. There is one thing I can promise you, if you go there for over two or three hours like me, your mind will be begging you to leave. It is not something that appeals to the mind. But something attracts the locals to want to explore this "behemoth" of a building. Even though the hospital is not running, the lost souls within this structure think otherwise. I have had my own experiences in this building that still scare me and scare me. I guess once you explore the whole building for four hours, unexplainable things will occur. This building was the only hospital in the area that had its own morgue.

I remember going to the Sterling Municipal Library and looking across the road and see the hospital trucks driving around the hospital. It was always something that fascinated me when I saw things like that. The hospital was built to honor those who served in World War Two. Now in my opinion, the hospital isn’t honoring much of anything now that it is just sitting there and rotting. Most people would like the hospital to be demolished, but the building was recently bought out from a company a couple years back. It was supposed to be turned into a nursing home. Every time I walk around the hospital now, I feel my stomach turning and my hands start to sweat. I remember the first time sneaking in. It was a terrifying experience but was an experience worth having. The only memory I remember, is when I was inside the hospital for either a family member being sick or one of my family members was pregnant, and I was sitting in a lobby and was playing Yahtzee. In the only memory I remember, all I remember is my surroundings feeling dead and grim. It was almost like you could feel the death that was all through entire hospital. Now the only memories being made of the hospital, is the decaying inside of the hospital. I wish I could go back and just experience and fully remember what the hospital was actually like. Now all I see are parts of the wall and ceiling apart and graffiti from hooligans.

The Ruins of the Hospital

This hospital has impacted me neutrally. I feel lucky to have this structure because I’m influenced that Baytown was able to make a building to honor soldiers. Then again, this building is something hazardous to the community and could be replaced by something useful. But the community failed to raise above the minimum required amount to rebuild this structure.

Now the once, beautiful hospital, now run down building, is sitting and growing vines that wrap around the building. There isn't much left of this monument, but remains of the past. It started to grow old fast and no one seemed to take care of it. People said that while the hospital was running, it had a "dead" feeling to it, as if it was already prepared to shut down. There was no specific reason this symbol of Baytown shut down. This building was also used for shelter from Hurricane Rita. Rita was known for its destructive path. The Old San Jacinto Hospital on Decker Drive still stands strong even through the roughest times which is why it is one of the symbols of Baytown.

Works Cited

Raji, Bayan. "Former Methodist Hospital in Baytown Sold." Houston Business Journal N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Nov 2013.

Baytown Bert. “Old San Jacinto Hospital on Decker Drive.” Blogspot., 24 Jul 2012. Web. 5 November 2013