This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
One of the last two remaining structures from the original Holy Cross Hospital campus in east Salt Lake City will be demolished this month.
The 89-year-old east wing of what is now known as the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center at 1050 E. South Temple will come down piece by piece to keep from damaging the complex's other original structure and its most historically significant building - a 101-year-old chapel.
Brian Dunn, CEO of Salt Lake Regional, acknowledges the east wing is a "beautiful architectural structure. [But] from the inside, it's not feasible."
The white Gothic wing - built in 1916 and boasting prominent flourishes, including a red roof, gable parapets and square-corner buttresses - will be replaced with a nondescript glass medical office building.
Dunn said the state-of-the-art building will help the hospital improve patient services.
Even so, neighbors are disappointed about losing the east wing and gaining a new building that they say is too modern for the nearby blocks.
"I'm very sad about it, but there's nothing to do because it's not part of a historic district. It's within 10 yards of two different historic districts [the South Temple and University of Utah districts] but it's not listed," said Vicki Mickelsen, who lives in the neighborhood and sits on the city's Historic Landmarks Commission.
The east wing itself isn't considered historically significant because of past renovations. The main building was replaced in 1960 and the west wing was torn down in 1988.
"The hospital itself has been added to and remodeled so many times that [it] is not considered eligible," said Don Hartley, architect with the Utah Historical Society. But the east wing does have heartfelt significance.
"Both my kids were born in that building," Mickelsen said. "That's where the maternity ward was for decades."
Dunn said employees were allowed to take pieces of the building - its fireplaces, marble slabs from the staircase, wood ornaments - as mementos. At a groundbreaking planned for August for the new building, Dunn said the hospital will give away bricks to the public. Its murals will be used elsewhere on the campus.
Neighborhood activists haven't fought the east-wing demolition because they are hoping to save yet another edifice on the block. Salt Lake Regional wanted to tear down the Moreau Medical Building at 1002 E. South Temple to build a parking lot.
Dunn said he has retreated from that plan because historians have shown it is a significant structure.
"The Moreau Building stands and will continue to stand," Dunn said.
But residents are skeptical, fearing bulldozers could surface again as Salt Lake Regional - owned by Iasis Healthcare - continues to try to attract doctors and patients.
"I'm not at all sure that fight is won by any means," Mickelsen said. "It's a big national chain. I think they're lying low."
Erected in 1949, the Moreau Building housed the Holy Cross nursing school and is thought to be the first nonresidential building on South Temple.
"It was really the first thing to appear other than a big mansion," said Kirk Huffaker of the Utah Heritage Foundation.
Dunn said he never considered demolishing the chapel. It was once a Catholic place of worship, when the medical complex was run by the Holy Cross Sisters. Now it is nondenominational.
"The chapel itself reminds us of where we came from and who we are," Dunn said. "It is a part of our hospital's heritage."