Former Ashland Hospital auctioned off
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The former St. Catherine Medical Center in Fountain Springs on June 17, 2021.
FOUNTAIN SPRINGS – The former Ashland Hospital may soon have a new owner, again.
The longtime hospital, the first in Schuylkill County and last in the north, closed in 2012 and has sat vacant since.
Ten-X, a commercial auction website, hosted an auction for the hospital building this week.
As of Thursday evening, the auction was listed as closed, saying the “property is in escrow.”
“Once escrow has been closed, the auction details will be made available upon request,” the website states.
Ten-X describes the hospital as a six-story nearly 200,000 square foot three-winged vacant medical office, with a “typical hospital layout with a central kitchen and glass ceiling cafeteria.”
The site touts recent updates, which include a new natural gas/heating oil dual boiler system, new roofing, and electrical systems.
The property also comes with three additional buildings, 285 parking spaces, and a helipad.
“Given the large amount of capital expenditures infused over the past several years, the property is perfectly situated for an adaptive reuse play. The property also includes over 20 acres of land for other future development,” Ten-X states.
WNEP reports that, at their last check, the top bid for the property was $450,000.
The property changed hands in March of 2020, when Ashland Properties, LLC, sold it to MSCG PA SPE LLC for $1. Ashland acquired the building for $550,000 from Saint Catherine Healthcare of PA.
The hospital opened in 1882 as the State Hospital for Injured Persons of the Anthracite Coal Region at Fountain Springs, with the first patient being John Lucas, of Shenandoah, a miner injured at Shenandoah’s Kohinoor Colliery, in 1883.
In 1967, the current hospital building was built and it became the Ashland State General Hospital.
In the 1990’s, the Commonwealth divested itself of its state hospitals and a local board acquired the facility, renaming it Ashland Regional Medical Center.
In 2001, Province Healthcare, of Tennessee, acquired the facility, and in 2006, it sold the facility to Saint Catherine Hospital of Pennsylvania LLC.
By 2012, the facility was in financial turmoil, with employee paychecks bouncing and a lack of key medical supplies.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health issued orders keeping the hospital from admitting new patients or performing lab work. Shortly after, the hospital closed.
It was the last hospital in northern Schuylkill County, outlasting Shenandoah Heights’ Locust Mountain State General Hospital by about 30 years.
Since the closure, the facility has sat vacant with little activity seen at the property.
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