The Washington County Hospital is one of last year's most endangered buildings in Iowa, according to the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance. (Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance)

A judge is currently deliberating the demolition of a historic Iowa hospital. Preservationists in southeastern Iowa attempted to obtain a temporary injunction in court last Friday to halt the destruction of Washington County's 1912 hospital and 1929 nurses' home. The hospital's board of trustees, which in August voted to demolish the buildings, wants to build a $21.5 million replacement.

The Washington County Historic Preservation Commission contends that the board lacks the legal right to demolish the buildings, arguing that the hospital is owned by the public, which originally funded it. It has also accused the board of violating open meeting agreements by using false agendas and conducting a misleading cost analysis, stating that the rehabilitation of the older buildings would cost an additional $1.5 million.

The seven-member board voted unanimously on Aug. 25 to raze the older facilities to make room for the new hospital. "The problem lies in the way they arrived at the decision," says Phyllis Carter, chairwoman of the commission, of the board's voting method. "The meeting agenda stated 'technology,' and then they voted to demolish [the buildings]."

According to the board's Web site, the new construction will "ensure the hospital as the top employer of Washington County residents." Although the new building will have the same number of beds, it will allow more patient privacy and handicapped access. Members of the board of trustees did not return phone calls from Preservation Online.

The buildings facing demolition next month are the original brick hospital and a concrete Tudor revival nurses' house added in 1929. Both were in use until December 30, 2005. The 1912 building was the first county hospital in the United States to be paid for by its residents. "It is the site where the public nursing concept arose," says Mary Patterson, a member of the historical commission.

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