By the end of the year, Palmerton Hospital, a community landmark that has stood for 55 years, will be demolished.

While the building may soon be gone, the memories remain for the hundreds of people who worked there, many of whom are sharing those experiences in a recently created Facebook group, “Palmerton Hospital OGs.”

Nicole Baker, who started her nursing career at Palmerton Hospital in 2010, started the group.

“I left to go to a bigger hospital and when I came back here I joined with St. Luke’s University Health Network as they were planning the St. Luke’s Carbon Campus,” Baker said. “I realized a lot of the people that I had worked with were still here and we got to talking about Palmerton coming down. So we were kind of talking amongst ourselves that it would be cool to all get together or something before this happened. So I started the group and invited the 40 people I think that I have on my page to kind of get together so that way we can all just keep each other informed of the plans.”

What started with those 40 people has now grown to almost 350, a number that has Baker pleasantly surprised.

“I think it has a lot of nostalgia because it was very community-based hospital and at certain points in its existence, it offered everything,” she said. “They had babies born there. I personally lost a friend that passed away at 20 years old there. I think it was the ‘everything hospital’ for that community. I think there’s just a lot of heart and soul there.”

Stories

Since the Facebook group started, former employees have been sharing stories about their time working at the hospital. One that stuck out to Baker was a recent post from Dr. Alessandro Boschi, a local obstetrics and gynecology specialist, and his wife, Joanne.

“My favorite place to work ever,” Boschi posted. “I started in September 1988, right out of residency. I got to know so many people that I considered family. I was there when many of you had children and delivered a couple of my own there as well.”

Lori Frey’s first job was at Palmerton Hospital as a candy striper. She later worked in the kitchen, business office, medical records and finally as a nurse. While Frey wrote that she’s truly heartbroken to hear the hospital will be torn down, she cherishes the friendships made over her extensive career.

“My eyes are filled with tears and my heart aches, but I know that while the building may be gone, our memories and friendships will live forever in our hearts and helped make us who we are today,” Frey posted.

Now a family nurse practitioner at St. Luke’s Palmerton Primary Care on Delaware Avenue, Bethany Collins Lengel said she practically grew up running the halls of the hospital. She frequently visited her mom, Nancy Greene Collins, for lunch during the summer and her grandmother, Belva Greene, volunteering in the Owl’s Nest.

“When I turned 17, Veronica Walck hired me as an emergency room technician while I went to nursing school,” she reflected in a Facebook post. “When I finished nursing school, I worked on medical surgical night shift with so many amazing nurses. I then transitioned to the emergency room as a registered nurse and later as a certified registered nurse practitioner in the emergency room until it closed. The Palmerton community certainly misses the original Palmerton Hospital, but St. Luke’s has and continues investing so much in our small community.”

Like many who worked there, Merrilyn Pysher got her start at Palmerton Hospital, initially as an exercise physiologist.

“Nancy Greene Collins gave me a chance just out of college,” Pysher posted. “During that time I also became a nurse. I was lucky enough to have so many great teachers from that hospital including Nancy. So many of these nurses have no idea how they changed my life. They gave me direction and a passion, plus friendship and acceptance.”

Plans

John Nespoli, president of both St. Luke’s Lehighton Campus and new Carbon Campus at St. Luke’s, said last week that the hospital, which was constructed in 1967, is slated for demolition this fall.

St. Luke’s closed the Lafayette Avenue campus after it acquired Blue Mountain Health System and began its construction of the new St. Luke’s Carbon Campus in Franklin Township.

According to Nespoli, the 2.7-acre space will be developed into “an attractive green space that will enhance this lovely residential area.”

“St. Luke’s has invested over $200 million in Carbon County health care in recent years,” he added. “We anticipate continued expansion as the community grows and expect additional medical services to eventually be developed at the former Palmerton Hospital site within a few years.”

Baker said she and fellow group members hope to follow through on plans to get together before the demolition occurs.

“This has kind of connected the dots for how small the world really is,” Baker said. “I knew there were plenty of people that came before me, but it was really nice to see all these people and that you have all these mutual friends in common. There is a lot of nostalgia and happy memories from one building and you can see what it meant to such a wide variety of people.”