St. Luke Medical Center is an abandoned 165-bed hospital located in the northeastern region of Pasadena, California. Upon opening in 1933, the hospital was one of only 2 hospitals to serve the city of Pasadena for nearly 70 years, in tandem with Huntington Hospital on the western side of the city. St Luke ultimately closed in 2002 due to financial issues stemming from the hospital's parent company Tenet Healthcare. The hospital has since become a famous location for filming as it has appeared in various music videos, TV shows, and movies over the years.
History
The hospital was originally built in 1933 to serve the Northeastern communities of Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre. The hospital was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange to act as a medical facility for the local area in tandem with Huntington Hospital (opened in 1892). Multiple wings were constructed to branch out of the main building over the years. The hospital also included an original chapel on the Northeast corner of the property, the critical care wing was originally constructed in 1945, the original operation wings were completed in 1948. In 1976 another wing was added to increase the number of beds of use for patient care, by 1984, two new office buildings and a co-generation facility were also added. Despite the renovations; the hospital was negatively reviewed in several local news articles in 1986 criticizing its antiquated buildings and limited capacity of patients housed, prompting the building to receive its final two structural additions in 1988 and 1990 respectively. The hospital was purchased by Oronda Health Group in 1994 and continued to received further funding to modernize the facility following Oronda's acquisition by Tenet Healthcare in 1997. St Luke would also sign into a contractual affiliation with Keck School of Medicine of USC in 1994.
Decline
Through much of the late 1990s, Tenet was negatively criticized on numerous occasions for their management of the St Luke as patients and local residents noted the declining service within the hospital despite the then-recent renovations. Tenet Healthcare's then-CEO Jeffrey Barbakow also received much scrutiny for his financial practices, as the network was regularly criticized for their poor management and closures of numerous hospitals across the network in an effort to appease Tenet's shareholders. Further adding to St Luke's decline; Huntington Hospital completed multiple expansive renovations in 1998; drawing in more patients away from the area and seeing more of St. Luke's personnel transfer out of the aging hospital. On January 5, 2002, Tenet Healthcare announced they would permanently close the facility by the end of the month, citing the hospital's inability to reach fiscal goals for the company dating back to 2000. Jeffrey Barbakow and Tenet continued to receive criticism after relocating the company's corporate offices to Santa Barbara and later issuing him an undisclosed severance payout following his resignation later that year. The hospital closed permanently on January 25, 2002, with its emergency room closing two weeks later, on February 10, 2002.
Post-Closure
The year following the closure; Tenet sold the property to Caltech for use as a research facility due to its location at the base of Eaton Canyon. However; the university saw very little of use in the aging facility and sold the property in 2007 to Denley Investments; a Beverly Hills based real estate company. Due to the original chapel's location on site and the original structure's age, the city of Pasadena filed the hospital as a historical landmark; preventing initial demolition plans scheduled for 2003. For several years following its closure, the property became very prominent film location due to its low cost and size, prominently featuring in such movies as Kill Bill: Volume 1 and La La Land. In 2013 the hospital was briefly evaluated by the city of Pasadena for possible reuse as an urgent care facility, however; the proposal was quickly vetoed as the location was deemed too outdated to meet current state standards.
