Saying Goodbye To Lakewood Hospital

LAKEWOOD, OH — The fight over Lakewood Hospital left scars in the community. While the battle over the hospital's future may be decided, one city councilman wants to make sure the building's historic importance to the city is honored and, in the process, perhaps mend old wounds.

Ward 3 Councilman John Litten has been asking residents for ideas on how to bid adieu to Lakewood Hospital. To this point, he's weighing ideas of a farewell tour, offering individual bricks to interested residents, a massive, generations-spanning group photo and more.

"It’s just something that simply needs to be honored, first and foremost," Litten told Patch. "The legacy of that space means that it’s important that we do this."

Litten is not unaware of how divisive the debate on the hospital's future was. He knows his project could be part of a mending process for residents on opposite sides of the debate. He's seen residents on both sides of the political spectrum offer their input.

"I think a residual benefit of this is that it can help with healing. Whether we agree or disagree on the hospital’s closure, I would hope that we can all agree that honoring this site is important. This is something that can be a healing thing, as well as just something that is right," he said.

If there is going to be some kind of event at the hospital, it would have to occur in either late July or August, Litten noted. The schedule of events for the hospital's destruction dictates some of what can be done to honor the site.

Luckily, Litten feels there's been support among some of his colleagues for this kind of farewell event. He said he'll need to work with the city's Building Department to coordinate. For example, he's not sure what would need to be done to get interested parties a brick from the hospital.

"Would we give a brick to anyone that wants one? Would we give a brick to only people that were born there, or worked there? We need to coordinate that," he said.

The councilman said this is where he wants to focus his energies in coming months, on a project that he believes is "simply right" in the light of the hospital's long-term importance to the development of the city.

He also noted that he's still open to ideas on how to say goodbye to the hospital and is happy to receive emails from residents of any ward. After all, his farewell project would be open to residents from throughout Lakewood.

To email Ward 3 Councilman John Litten, click here.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch