Lafayette Home Hospital
Home Hospital originally began in a house at the corner of 16th and Howell streets, adjacent to the current Franciscan Health Lafayette Central campus.
On June 16, 1895, Lafayette Home Hospital was officially incorporated[1] as a non-profit entity with 21 local residents serving on the board of directors.
"If any generous and public spirited lady or gentleman wishes to hand his or her name down to posterity as a benefactor or to erect a monument that will be lasting and grand by contributing sufficient money to build the proposed institution, it will be possible to change the name, so as to honor the donor," was one report in the Lafayette Journal & Courier from June 1895.
John P. Kile, a retired merchant from Lafayette, donated funds and built a new two-story brick building in memory of his wife Elizabeth.
In the mid 1950s, a group of community leaders gathered and met with both administration and boards of Home Hospital and St. Elizabeth to plan for the future.
According to the April 16, 1959 edition of the Journal and Courier, the Tippecanoe County Medical Society recognized "the critical shortage of hospital facilities in Greater Lafayette, Tippecanoe County and the surrounding area, sought the assistance of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in obtaining expansion of Home and St. Elizabeth Hospitals."
A report was issued by the HEALTH committee by Dr. Herman Smith and Associates – a hospital consultant – emphasizing the need for improvement and expansion at both facilities.
The reason why the hospitals needed to be modernized: expansion and growth in the community, especially with new industries and a growing student population at Purdue.
On September 26, 1997, Home Hospital and St. Elizabeth officials announced that the two entities intended to combine the governance and management in a new corporation.
Greater Lafayette Health Services announced in late 2005 a plan to close Home Hospital, and construct a new facility to replace it on the city's southeast side, with St. Elizabeth Medical Center remaining open for critical patient care.
Lafayette Home Hospital closed in February 2010; the property was sold in 2012, [2] to an Indianapolis based group of investors, Columbian Park Redevelopment LLC.
