STAATS BUILDING RENOVATIONS AND FIT-OUT Charleston WV

Renovations to the former Staats Hospital Building located in the Elk City Historic District in Charleston WV.  It was a Historic Preservation Project qualifying with the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service.  The photos included here really tell the story of how new life was breathed into the building while preserving and being respectful of its historical details and significance. 

Originally designed for a hospital, theatre, and Knights of Pythias lodge in the Elk City commercial district. John Norman designed the combination structure using the classical Revival architectural style. Norman was the second registered black architect and the seventh registered architect for the state. The cornerstone was laid on October 8, 1921. The new building opened on June 26, 1922, 11 12 at a cost of $150,000.

The 635-seat Grand Theater, the first movie house in the neighborhood, was located on the first floor, along with an ice-cream parlor and confectionery. The second floor was devoted to office space, while the Knights of Pythias used the third and fourth floors. The third floor housed the banquet room, kitchen, serving room, reading room, pool and billiard room, cigar counter, and restrooms, while the fourth floor featured an expanse auditorium.

The first floor later became Kelley’s Department Store and an American & Pacific grocer. Doctor Harlan Staats, a doctor and member of the Knights of Pythias, converted the second and third levels of the building into a 67-bed hospital. The Glendale No. 78 Knights of Pythias Lodge closed in 1941. In 1982, the Staats Hospital closed when the Kanawha Valley Memorial Hospital moved to a new 170-bed facility on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

The empty Staats Hospital was reused as St. Francis West Health Care, medical offices for St. Francis Hospital. The building steadily deteriorated until it concluded with just only one occupant on the first floor, Dr. Adla Adi, who went bankrupt in 2010. Adi had desired to tear down the building in the early 2000s and had received approval from the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority (CURA).

The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia listed the Staats Hospital as its most endangered building in 2012. The roof had deteriorated over a lack of maintenance, and the interior had been stripped of metals and other materials of monetary value. Plywood, painted with murals, was installed in 2013 over the first-floor windows by the West Side Main Street organization.

PROJECT SIZE  40,000 sf