Abandoned small town hospital in Ohio


Otis Hospital, Celina Ohio
Date added: September 08, 2023 Categories:
South facade (1980)

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The Otis Hospital is a rare example of the home-like health care once provided by a community doctor during the first quarter of the 20th century. Mercer County's first hospital was founded in Celina in 1915 by Dr. Lloyd M. Otis and continued in operation under the direction of his son, Dr. James J. Otis, until 1977. Its present appearance and interior arrangement remain from 1921 and illustrate how a small hospital was self-contained. It is an example of a Civil War residence remodeled into an adapted prairie style by the Lima architectural firm, Hulsken and Strong, who built Mercer County's courthouse that same year.

The hospital served the city and county continuously through the years. Yet in 1970, before the state made impossible demands, the second floor had an operating room, delivery room with a nursery adjoining, and seven patient rooms. Although often the nursery only had one or two babies at a time in later years, over 6,125 deliveries are recorded in its 55 years of maternity care. The first floor had an office, a waiting room, X-ray room, emergency room, and seven patient rooms. In the basement, a northwest corner of the original house is used for a boiler room. The rest housed a laundry, the kitchen and lunchroom pharmacy, and the emergency entrance. Wood staircases connect the two main floors while an Otis Elevator with folding glass doors runs to all three levels.

Forced to discontinue its maternity care in 1970 and its Medicare services in 1976 because of non-compliance with fire safety regulations, the hospital closed its in-patient services in 1977 after 62 years. Attempts were made to revive the building, but in December 1979, the lot with the hospital was sold to a fast food chain and the procedures for demolition and public auction were made.

Public outcry throughout the county encouraged the Otis family to reconsider and search anew to save this important landmark. They have made a new commitment to attempt rehabilitation and reuse of the structure as offices or living space.

Building Description

Celina's first hospital is a two-story beet red brick building with definite horizontal lines that resemble prairie style. It originally was an 1865 two-story square brick residence with classical wide pilasters that extend from the roof to a heavy stone foundation to evenly space hooded segmental arched windows that are still visible on the west 2/3's of the rear of the building and the west facade. A door with a flat brick arch and glass sidelights was probably cut into the west wall after the original construction. Two fireplaces on each floor were still present in this portion of the building yet in the 1940's.

Converted into a hospital in 1921, now the structure dominates 'a large lot with old sprawling trees. The cream-colored porch with upper balustrade used to have swings for the patients and nurses. Now it is enclosed with double doors under a red script neon sign that reads OTIS HOSPITAL, A red tile roof with cream colored dormers extends to form a wide overhang that has cream colored eaves and cornice. The unsymmetrical placement of cream trimmed unmatching windows and doors on the second floor still achieves an aesthetically pleasing balance. The trios of multi-pane windows on the east portion in both levels are in the new construction from 1921. The only changes in the exterior is the two story wing with lower level emergency ramp and entrance in 1955 to the east side.

The interior of the hospital was designed to resemble a home-like atmosphere. No major changes in room arrangement have taken place through the years. The uses of some of the rooms have changed as the updating took place.

Otis Hospital, Celina Ohio South facade (1980)
South facade (1980)

Otis Hospital, Celina Ohio Operating room, Second floor at the top of the open stairs (1980)
Operating room, Second floor at the top of the open stairs (1980)

Otis Hospital, Celina Ohio Typical patient room first floor southwest corner (1980)
Typical patient room first floor southwest corner (1980)