Having sat in Duluth for more than 100 years, the old St. Mary’s building has become a long-standing part of the city’s community. However, starting in the summer of 2024, the abandoned building will begin to be torn down. This news follows the construction of a new St. Mary’s Hospital as part of Essentia Health.

The newly constructed St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth months before opening to the public.
Photo Credit: Essentia Health

The building which became St. Mary’s Medical Center has acted as a hospital in downtown Duluth since the late 1890’s, with a long history of importance in the city, there was much discussion over what to do with the building. For the last few years, the original St. Mary’s Medical Center has slowly transferred all of its patients and staff to the new hospital. With the transition fully complete, the building sits abandoned and unused.

Starting construction in 2019, the new St. Mary’s Medical Center was Essentia Health’s plan to help revolutionize and advance their medical services in the downtown Duluth area. Essentia Health was formed in 2004 after combining with the now defunct St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic Health System. The new facility is larger, more advanced and more effective than the previous hospital. Focusing on an employee and guest friendly design and construction of the buildings, the new St. Mary’s Medical Center was set on acting as a necessary improvement to the facilities of the original. Taking three and a half years and 900 million dollars to complete it, the new St. Mary’s Hospital opened itself to the public of Duluth in July of 2023.

With its replacement firmly established, the city of Duluth approves for Essentia Health to begin tearing down the original hospital. Keeping up the current maintenance costs of the old St. Mary’s Hospital proved to not be worth the effort, and the decision was made to demolish the facilities instead. The plan is for deconstruction to begin in the summer of next year and hopefully completely finish removing it by the end of 2025. The state of Minnesota has already set aside over 11 million dollars for the demolition efforts, as the buildings set to be removed take up multiple city blocks. It is reported as the largest demolition effort in the recent history of Duluth.

However, there is still much we do not know about the demolition of the hospital. The exact method for how the buildings will be removed is still under review, leaving the exact scope in question. There are also no current plans for how the space will be used once the demolition is finished. All that has been decided is that the area will be grassed until further developments are planned. There have been talks of the University of Minnesota expanding its medical facilities into Duluth but as of right now, nothing has been decided. Essentia Health itself has discussed expanding its own current hospital facilities, but there is still nothing concrete.

Whatever happens after the fact, the long demolition process will still transform a well known part of the city’s downtown history. Duluth is always changing, and the construction of the new St. Mary’s Medical Center and demolition of the previous St. Mary’s Hospital goes to show this. However, as the old hospital is already being set to be removed, the new St. Mary’s is there to provide care for the people of Duluth.

St. Mary’s Hospital To Be Demolished Starting Next Year