We visited Elgin, Illinois, today and at one point during our visit, we took a stroll near the former site of the Sherman Hospital. At the corner of Cooper and Spring Streets (where I didn’t take a picture), we saw this view, except that it was overcast today.

Had we been at the same corner in 2012, according to Google, we would have seen this.

Never mind the shifting address. Google did that willy-nilly, since there is no there, there, to have an address. The vanished brick building was part of the old Sherman Hospital, closed in the 2000s. The new hospital is to the west and close to I-90. The old hospital was square in a neighborhood, where a lot of the houses belonged to doctors and other hospital employees, once upon a time.

At the edge of the enormous vacant lot, a structure remains, an obvious mid-century addition to the long-gone early 20th century brick structure.

It looked vacant, though perhaps the hospital still uses it for labs or storage or the like. I also read that during the worst days of the pandemic, when hospital space was in short supply, this building was used – or at least ready to be used – for overflow patients.

Mostly I was struck by how brutalist it is. Some other views:

Apparently there used to be a memorial sign honoring the hospital in this now-lush spot, which is fenced in for no obvious reason. The sign disappeared like the hospital, also for no obvious reason.

Even in the shadow of brualism —

— life goes on.