Detroit Osteopathic Hospital

Information

Detroit Osteopathic Hospital was founded in 1919 on the corner of Highland and 3rd Streets. The hospital started out in a converted house with 38 beds donated by Mr. Phillip Gray, eventually moving into an adjacent house, before the first major expansion began in the mid 1930's.

The 2-story Phillip Gray Memorial unit of the hospital was completed in 1937, increasing the capacity of the hospital to 100 patients. Amenities included a modern x-ray facility, surgical wards, an operating room, and a modern communication system. As the building was being completed, plans were already being drawn up for new expansion that added offices and another 2-story patient wing in 1943. As the city of Highland Park grew the hospital expanded again in 1950, 1953, 1955, 1957, and 1958, adding new buildings and additional floors onto existing ones. The original homes that made up the hospital were demolished during these expansions, replaced by a 8-story tower in 1955. The Detroit Osteopathic Hospital became a network, building hospitals in nearby Trenton and Warren.

There came a time though when the city of Highland Park stopped growing, starting in the 1960's. The last addition was a single-story wing on the west side of the complex, built in 1975.

Quality of health care declined through the 1980's, with unusually high death rates up until it closed in 1992. Paperwork inside indicates that the hospital was still being used through the mid 1990's, but details are scant. It closed again at some point, and most of the medical equipment was auctioned off.

In 2004, the hospital building got a new lease on life when part of it was renovated and reopened as the Business Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology Academy - or BEST Academy. The first three floors of the west side of the complex were cleared and renovated into classrooms, while the fourth floor was used for storage. While there were early plans to convert the remaining wings of the hospital, this never went beyond the planning stage, and the eastern wings were bricked off and left to fall into ruin as scrappers and vandalism found their way in.

Though the school opened with some promise, parent feedback of the school was mostly negative, and BEST Academy closed in the summer of 2012.