A historically important Worthington site is in the midst of a facelift – one that includes bulldozers and demolition crews.
Earlier this month, work began to demolish three buildings on the property known as the Harding Hospital site, where Proprietors Road ends south of Dublin-Granville Road.
The buildings – which were designated as D, E and F and sat behind the property at 445 E. Dublin-Granville Road – had been vacant for "many years," according to the city of Worthington. They also were dilapidated, and engineer assessments sent to the city showed they were unsafe and would be expensive to repair.
The property is owned by Boundless, a private nonprofit organization formerly known as Franklin County Residential Services that operates a variety of programs there for people on the autism spectrum, outpatient services, intervention and counseling.
The demolition is expected to cost Boundless about $130,000, according to documents submitted to the city's architectural-review board.
Susan Burke, director of community living for Boundless, said "a lot of plans are being made for the site, but nothing concrete just yet."
She said Boundless is working with a consultant to kick off a comprehensive planning process for the next use, and the leveled spaces would be used as parking when Boundless increases its staffing later this year.
Although Boundless will have control of the next phase of the site, the land's development history stretches back a century.
George T. Harding founded Harding Hospital in 1916. The hospital focused on helping those with physical and mental disabilities.
At a 100th-anniversary celebration in 2016, Richard Harding – the grandson of the founder – said the hospital was meant to help those in need.
"He felt people with mental illness deserved the best care possible," Richard Harding said. "And he thought, along with the right people, he could provide that."
Harding Hospital served Worthington more than 80 years and was an integral part of the community.
Kim Feinknopf-Dorrian, an archivist and historian with the Harding-Buller Foundation of Worthington, said few people realize how innovative the campus was.
Doctors had a full staff with a physiological focus and they preached proper nutrition, exercise and mental health for residents, making it a far cry from the other sanitariums of the time.
"It was a mental-health healing community to support its patients," she said. "It was so far ahead of its time, even in the early 20th century. ... They developed it as a community."
Although many mental hospitals or sanitariums were known for being isolated, Feinknopf-Dorrian said, the Harding Hospital stood apart because of its willingness to be part of Worthington.
"People from the community would take walks there," she said. "It was very open."
In 1999, the hospital became part of the Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, and in 2014, Step by Step Academy became the newest owner after purchasing the property from Ohio State.
Step by Step, which offers school-based autism and outpatient programs, merged with Boundless in 2017.
As Boundless works on renovations, the Kemper House, an Alzheimer's-, dementia- and memory-care facility on the northeast corner of Proprietors and Dublin-Granville roads (the former Worthington Foods site), will be next door.
The Kemper House project was approved April 12 by the architectural-review board.
David McCorkle, Worthington's economic-development manager, said city leaders are "happy to see investment occurring at our eastern gateway."
"Both the Kemper House and Boundless provide Worthington and the surrounding community with access to much-needed resources," he said.
Corinne Garvey is the executive director of the Harding-Buller Foundation of Worthington. She said organization leaders are thrilled Boundless, which has a similar mission to Harding's goals, now operates on the site.
"We're very excited about them being there and the potential for the clients they're going to be serving," she said. "The (Harding) family is very happy about that, and we've been working with them a little bit about the history of the property.
"It's all good as far as we're concerned."
For Feinknopf-Dorrian, the perceived goals of Boundless are exactly what the space deserves.
"It's so refreshing and exciting," she said. "It sounds like they want to utilize that campus the way the original campus was seen, to support the needs of people with disabilities in the way that they did for mental health, while integrating the community.
"It's exactly what George was trying to do."
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