NORRISTOWN >> The “Lady,” a crane equipped with a 4-ton wrecking ball, started demolishing the patient rooms on the top floor of the former Montgomery Hospital building on Powell Street Wednesday morning.
The 180-foot tall crane, operated by Judd Hawthorne, began dropping the wrecking ball through the roof and concrete floor plates of the seven-story, hospital building after a safety meeting with the five equipment operators and the two laborers from Hawthorne Equipment of Coatesville.
“The M47 crane was called the ‘Lady’ after the late Mary Hawthorne. She ran Hawthorne Inc. for many years after her father died,” said Hawthorne. “The crane, which was bought in 1966, was named after her.”
The wrecking ball was first dropped through every concrete floor plate in the near corner of the building down to the first floor while a stream of water was sprayed onto the building corner to cut the dust. After that Hawthorne swung the steel ball sideways to crumple the top corner of the building. Debris will be sorted into piles of bricks, metal and trash by the smaller hydraulic excavators before it is hauled off the demolition site in commercial trash containers.
It will take six months to clear the site of all building materials, including the concrete foundations that are located underground, said Tom Jhinis, an oiler working on the large crane. Hammer attachments will be used on the excavators to break up the concrete foundations.
“We want to clean up what hits the ground each day,” Hawthorne said, “because we’re working in a residential neighborhood.”
Mary Romano of East Norriton stopped at the street corner outside the 6-foot construction fence to mail letters and to observe the initial demolition work.
“I’m saddened. It has a lot of memories for me,” said Romano, a former physical therapy aide who worked at the hospital for 40 years. “The hospital was there for so many years. It helped the community in so many ways.”
Pharmacist Mike LaCon sent one of his sons outside of his pharmacy located across the street from the demolition site to make a video record.
LaCon’s Pharmacy has been located on the first floor of the medical office building at 1336 Powell St. for many decades.
“It’s kind of sad,” said LaCon as he filled a prescription. “It has been there for so long and one of my kids, Matthew, was born there.”
LaCon said that he had been watching the initial demolition work that included removing the emergency room wing.
“It’s very entertaining to watch,” LaCon said. “It’s like a show.”
LaCon said that the closing of the hospital in 2012 had reduced his sales of “front end” snacks, soda and lottery tickets but had not affected prescription sales. He pointed out that the hospital closing had increased the available parking in the adjacent parking garage.
Allied Construction Services (ACS), an affiliated company of the Elon Group in Fort Washington, is sharing the $4 million to $5 million cost of demolishing the seven-story, 365,000-square-foot main building and the adjacent McShea building with Einstein Healthcare Network of Philadelphia. USA Environmental of Philadelphia completed a more than $900,000 contract to remove the asbestos from the building. The demolition project began in September 2014.
The hospital network, which merged with Montgomery Hospital several years ago, will sell the 3.7-acre parcel to the Elon Group for $1.
Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM) merged with Montgomery Hospital several years ago and moved the hospital staff to the 146-bed, $350 million hospital in East Norriton in September 2012. The Norristown hospital closed in September 2012 with the transfer of several dozen patients to EMCM.
The Elon Group has unsuccessfully applied to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) for a 0 percent loan of $750,000 to subsidize construction of the $10 to $12 million, 50-unit senior apartment project. The proposed four-story building would be Phase I of a three-phase project for a second, 50-unit, senior apartment building and a 15,000-square-foot senior adult day care building.
The second request for public financing from the PHFA is being considered by the state agency this spring.
View a photo gallery of the wrecking ball demolition work at Montgomery Hospital here: http://bit.ly/Montgomery-Hospital-demolition.
Contact Carl Rotenberg at 267-907-6137 (c) and 484-679-8476.
