LAKEMORE: Craig Stanley stepped through the broken doorway into the former Edwin Shaw rehabilitation hospital.
There used to be a giant board blocking what now is a gaping hole in the abandoned facility.
The building is filled with smashed windows, broken glass, trash and graffiti — clear signs that thieves interested in stripping the copper pipes and vandals interested in defacing the place are frequent visitors.
“We put the boards up. They take ’em down. We put ’em up. They take ’em down,” said Stanley, administrative services director for Summit County, which owns the land.
The buildings themselves will likely come down soon, removing a maintenance headache for the county and at the same time, officials hope, breathing new life into the desolate property.
The county plans to seek bids to demolish the former red brick medical facilities, cottages and other buildings spread across the more than 100-acre site. It also will take care of some environmental issues.
The goal is to jump-start interest from developers and generate needed tax revenue for Lakemore.
If everything goes smoothly, from County Council approving the project to a contractor stepping forward, demolition could begin as early as this summer.
The hilly and wooded property — which has served as a tuberculosis hospital, children’s home and rehabilitation facility over the last 100 years — has sat vacant since 2010. The general feeling is that potential developers have been scared off either by the price tag of rehabbing the structures or tearing them down.
The county estimates that the cost of demolition and asbestos removal alone will be up to $1.6 million.
Summit and Lakemore officials hope that developers will step forward with proposals if those costs are taken care of.
History
The hospital, originally known as the Springfield Lake Sanatorium, opened in 1915 and treated patients with tuberculosis.
Decades later, the county-owned facility was taken over by Akron General Medical Center and used for inpatient rehabilitation.
Akron General relocated its services in 2010, and other operators such as Summit County Public Health also moved out.
The property is still home to a small cemetery and a three-hole golf course designed for those with disabilities.
The cemetery contains the remains of 245 men, women and children who died at the tuberculosis hospital.
County officials don’t expect any changes looming for the cemetery or the Challenge Golf Course.
“[The golf course] is a community asset that we want to keep,” Stanley said.
Zero interest
With the buildings standing, there has been zero interest from commercial developers in the property, Stanley said.
In the past, the county created a CD highlighting the site to shop around to prospective developers.
There was talk of it becoming home to a Ginn Academy or an emergency training center for the University of Akron.
But nothing panned out.
With no serious interest out there, the county decided to shut off the utilities and board up the buildings in 2012. The move saved more than $200,000 a year in utilities and maintenance costs.
Last year, a businessman floated the idea of turning it into a haunted attraction, playing off its history as a tuberculosis hospital.
The county rejected that concept as crass.
“A lot of suffering went on here,” Stanley said.
Eerie scene
The scene now is eerie, even more so in a gray, snowless winter.
Windows are broken or boarded up. Grass is overgrown. Trees have toppled over. Buildings have been tagged with graffiti.
Inside the former hospital, fleas have taken over. There’s also mold. County workers have found blood trails, too, evidence that the vandals or scavengers badly cut themselves.
Despite locked gates at the entrances and daily visits to check on the property, the county can’t keep up with the vandals and thieves. Stanley estimated that between 50 and 60 people have been arrested there.
“Our biggest concern is we don’t want anybody to get hurt,” he said about the reason for the routine patrols and boards.
Special place
The property remains a special place in the hearts of many residents.
Lakemore Mayor Rick Justice, who grew up in Springfield Township and can recall playing basketball with kids who lived at the children’s home, is among those who have mixed emotions about seeing the buildings torn down.
“It has touched a lot of people’s lives,” he said about the important role the property has played in the community. “It’s rehabilitated people. It’s saved lives.”
But he also knows that the aging buildings are standing in the way of future commercial development.
The village wants to see a commercial enterprise there to bring in tax revenue, as opposed to a housing development. The county shares that opinion.
“It is a beautiful piece of property,” Justice said.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ.