Eddie Jorgensen feels like he is losing a family member.
In 1949, Jorgensen was born in the North Tower section of what was then the Independence Sanitarium. Fifteen years later, he started working after school on the hospital grounds, as well as the laundry and boiler rooms.
The part-time maintenance job progressed into a 37-year career with the hospital where Jorgensen eventually became its director of engineering.
Now, eight years after he left Independence Regional Health Center and nearly three years after it closed its doors, Jorgensen will watch across West Truman Road as the North Tower is demolished through the end of March.
“It’s like tearing down or losing a family, but the other part of the family – those buildings – are still there,” said Jorgensen, who now serves as facilities director of The Groves, located directly across from the former hospital in Independence. “I’m glad it’s not just an empty, vacant lot.”
The bricks are slowly coming down at the North Tower on 1509 W. Truman Road between the Truman-Forest Professional Building and the former hospital’s south diagnostic tower as progress continues to take place for the Independence Regional Ennovation Center. The Ennovation Center will provide office, kitchen and wet lab space for entrepreneurs and is projected to open in late May, according to Tom Lesnak, president of the Independence Council for Economic Development.
Independence Mayor Don Reimal remembers getting his tonsils removed in the North Tower as a child – the hospital is the only location Reimal’s ever had surgery, he said. His younger brother, Roger, also was born within the North Tower.
“There are a lot of memories for folks whose children were born there, members of the family who spent their last days there,” Reimal said. “A lot of people went door to door to raise funds for beds. The need was there, but the funding wasn’t.
“I think it stirs a lot of emotion in folks when they see it coming down, but I’m sure they’ll be pleased when they see it converted into two buildings. Things change – we either take advantage of the opportunities we have, or we are passed by and have to deal with facilities that have no use to certain groups. You have to take advantage of what’s available, and this is a good thing that’s available.”
Throughout the years, the eight-story North Tower was home to radiology and X-ray units, obstetrics and nurseries, psychiatric wards and offices. David Edwards, a principal with CEAH Realtors and the Ennovation Center project manager, said the tower, built during the 1920s, was left out of the rehabilitation because of its structural age and environmental remediation problems.
The remainder of the former IRHC campus will be preserved, Edwards said.
“It’s interesting how many people come up to me on a regular basis to tell me that they were born there or had surgery there,” Edwards said. “There’s a lot of history there.”
Former Independence Mayor Barbara Potts received her training as an X-ray technician at the then-Independence Sanitarium’s North Tower and worked at the hospital for two years. The hospital also helped reconnect Potts with her future husband, Don, a doctor whom she first met at college in Iowa.
“Time moves on,” Potts said, laughing. “I understand it. That hospital provided service for so many, many, many years. It was the only health care service in Independence when I was growing up. It was all right there in that general location. That whole building area – regardless of the exact site – you can’t help but be somewhat sentimental about it.”
Potts said she is excited about the progress taking place with the Ennovation Center, believing that it will move Independence forward. But even then, she is still clutching at her nostalgic feelings.
“I don’t know if I’ve decided if I have the courage to go by and see it,” Potts said, laughing about the demolition. “I may have to get a brick.”
