Within the coronary heart of Houston’s historic Fifth Ward, a once-abandoned hospital has been reborn as a newly redeveloped house complicated.
Metropolis leaders, neighborhood stakeholders and residents just lately gathered to rejoice the grand opening of St. Elizabeth Place Flats. This adaptive reuse challenge fuses trendy inexpensive housing with deep-rooted cultural preservation.
Situated at 4514 Lyons Avenue, St. Elizabeth Hospital was opened in 1947 to serve Houston’s Black neighborhood throughout segregation. It was as soon as a secure house for Black Houstonians in want of medical care, particularly in the course of the Jim Crow period.
The constructing is now a residential complicated providing 85 studio, one-, and two-bedroom models. A portion is reserved for households incomes as little as 30% of the Space Median Revenue (AMI).
“This growth displays our shared perception that housing may be each fantastically designed and deeply rooted in function,” stated Mike Nichols, Director of the Metropolis of Houston Housing and Group Growth Division. “St. Elizabeth Place demonstrates how strategic public funding can revitalize neighborhoods whereas preserving what makes them particular.”
For Dr. Charles Turner, pastor of New Nice Grove Missionary Baptist Church, the restoration of St. Elizabeth is private and prophetic.
“Preservation of historic landmarks in Fifth Ward is necessary because the neighborhood experiences transition,” stated Turner. “The transformation of St. Elizabeth Hospital into St. Elizabeth Place causes you to pause and inform the story of the constructing that actually birthed the neighborhood in a time when well being care was inaccessible to many Blacks.”
Honoring a historic legacy
St. Elizabeth Hospital was as soon as a cornerstone of healthcare entry for African People in Houston, a spot born out of necessity in an period of racial discrimination. The power symbolized progress and perseverance for the Black neighborhood, providing essential companies in a metropolis that always denied them equal care.
Many years later, the constructing had fallen into disrepair.
The unique hospital constructing is within the form of a capital “E,” which symbolizes Elizabeth. It was constructed in an Artwork Décoratifs-style that was common within the late Nineteen Forties. A chapel separated the 2 wings. A Convent was constructed to the east of the principle constructing. The hospital initially had 60 beds, however further flooring and wings had been added in the course of the Fifties. A non-historic construction to the southwest of the constructing was added within the late Eighties.
The $17.8 million funding, primarily via the Group Growth Block Grant – Catastrophe Restoration (CDBG-DR) funds, enabled the constructing’s transformation into mixed-income housing whereas preserving key architectural options like its brick and limestone facade and unique terrazzo flooring.
“At the present time is a very long time coming, but it surely has been definitely worth the wait,” stated Kathy Flanagan Payton, president of the Fifth Ward Group Redevelopment Company (FWCRC), the nonprofit behind the challenge. “It’s our response to gentrification—defending legacy residents who’ve been right here for generations, giving low-income households entry and alternative, whereas additionally welcoming newcomers.”
Partnership mannequin
The challenge resulted from a collaboration between the Metropolis of Houston, Fifth Ward Group Redevelopment Company, Cloudbreak Communities, the Texas Common Land Workplace and the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth (HUD).
“For these of us who’ve lived within the Fifth Ward our complete lives, seeing this constructing come again to life means all the pieces,” stated Mrs. Bertha Dorian, a resident and neighborhood advocate. “It honors our historical past and offers hope for the longer term.”
St. Elizabeth Place gives a mixture of inexpensive and market-rate models, offering a lifeline to households liable to being priced out of their neighborhood.
The renovation additionally addresses a essential want in Houston: entry to high-quality, inexpensive housing.
“As you may know, again in 1947, the Catholic diocese and Sisters of Charity acknowledged there was segregation and folks weren’t getting the prenatal care that they wanted,” stated at-large place 5 council member Sallie Alcorn. “A number of infants [were] born in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. After which it was like a whole disrepair.”The opening of St. Elizabeth Place comes at a time when housing affordability is a urgent concern in Houston and throughout the nation, with rising rents and growing gentrification pressures in traditionally Black neighborhoods.
