Barlow Hospital

Through its first 60 years--spanning two wars, a depression and then the Cold War--tiny Barlow Sanatorium in Elysian Park was an institution that never lost sight of its mission. As Walter Jarvis Barlow intended when he founded the philanthropic hospital in 1902, the sanatorium remained a haven for victims of tuberculosis.

The leafy and historic neighborhoods just north of downtown Los Angeles feature bungalows perched on steep hillsides, businesses huddled on commercial streets and an iconic baseball stadium. But all are dominated by Elysian Park, the 600-acre expanse that makes up the city's oldest and second-largest park and serves as a backyard for many neighborhoods around it. And near the edge of that park sits the venerable Barlow Respiratory Hospital, a clutch of historic cottages and buildings on a pastoral 25 acres.

Barlow Respiratory Hospital has a storied past. One of Los Angeles' oldest hospitals, with a charitable legacy of serving low-income patients, the 103-year-old facility on the western edge of Dodger Stadium also is designated by the city as a historic landmark. But the nonprofit hospital's future is uncertain. Its board of directors has decided to sell its pastoral campus to survive.

Previously, Out There visited Barlow Respiratory Hospital, which has operated for more than a century, little noticed by the outside world and hidden away near Dodger Stadium. Big changes are afoot; the hospital is leading an effort to redevelop its 25-acre campus. Since the campus is just two miles north of downtown Los Angeles, that represents a big opportunity -- but, judging by reader response, one that will generate no small amount of passion and debate.

Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen awarded the first federal funds for construction of health care facilities for AIDS patients. Almost $7 million was granted to 19 facilities in nine states to renovate or build facilities to provide long-term care or non-acute intermediate care for AIDS patients.

Previously, Out There visited Barlow Respiratory Hospital, which has operated for more than a century, little noticed by the outside world and hidden away near Dodger Stadium. Big changes are afoot; the hospital is leading an effort to redevelop its 25-acre campus. Since the campus is just two miles north of downtown Los Angeles, that represents a big opportunity -- but, judging by reader response, one that will generate no small amount of passion and debate.

An official at Barlow Hospital, a respiratory facility in Elysian Park, angrily denied Friday the existence of plans to expand a 25-bed AIDS hospice that will open next month on the hospital's grounds. John R. Howard, Barlow's chief administrator, said that Michael Weinstein, the head of the Los Angeles AIDS Hospice Foundation, which is opening the 25-bed hospice in December, had no authority to make plans for an expansion funded by state revenue bonds.

Leaders of AIDS support groups that will be barred from holding meetings at Barlow Hospital near downtown Los Angeles labeled as "absurd fabrications" Monday charges that AIDS patients had abused hospital property. The representatives of six groups held an evening meeting at Barlow and resolved to write hospital directors to seek a chance "to defend ourselves." They said they had no knowledge of the behavior alleged by John R. Howard, Barlow's chief administrator.

It hardly looks like a place one goes to die. Morning sun streams through the picture windows onto the new wood floors as workmen scurry throughout the two-story building, putting finishing touches of peach and light blue paint on the walls. A stained glass window depicting a sea shell is already in place, and a new living room rug suggestive of rippling water waits to be unrolled in front of the brick fireplace.

A $5-million, state-guaranteed revenue bond issue to finance construction of four Los Angeles AIDS hospices--where terminally ill patients can go to die with dignity--was preliminarily approved Thursday by the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.

Barlow Respiratory Hospital has a storied past. One of Los Angeles' oldest hospitals, with a charitable legacy of serving low-income patients, the 103-year-old facility on the western edge of Dodger Stadium also is designated by the city as a historic landmark. But the nonprofit hospital's future is uncertain. Its board of directors has decided to sell its pastoral campus to survive.

For those stricken with tuberculosis, his name was a bridge of hope, a way back not only to health, but also to life itself. A soldier of sorts, Dr. Walter Jarvis Barlow came West shortly before the turn of the century, armed with determination to cure himself of what was then the world's most deadly infectious disease and to help others waging a fight against the scourge then known as consumption.

It hardly looks like a place one goes to die. Morning sun streams through the picture windows onto the new wood floors as workmen scurry throughout the two-story building, putting finishing touches of peach and light blue paint on the walls. A stained glass window depicting a sea shell is already in place, and a new living room rug suggestive of rippling water waits to be unrolled in front of the brick fireplace.

An official at Barlow Hospital, a respiratory facility in Elysian Park, angrily denied Friday the existence of plans to expand a 25-bed AIDS hospice that will open next month on the hospital's grounds. John R. Howard, Barlow's chief administrator, said that Michael Weinstein, the head of the Los Angeles AIDS Hospice Foundation, which is opening the 25-bed hospice in December, had no authority to make plans for an expansion funded by state revenue bonds.

A $5-million, state-guaranteed revenue bond issue to finance construction of four Los Angeles AIDS hospices--where terminally ill patients can go to die with dignity--was preliminarily approved Thursday by the California Health Facilities Financing Authority.

Leaders of the Los Angeles County AIDS Commission have agreed to meet with directors of the Barlow Hospital to consider ways in which the hospital can help with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic. It is yet another indication of the constructive leadership that both the hospital and the commission have provided.

In a move that delighted supporters of AIDS hospice programs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to commit $2 million from next year's budget to pay for such programs countywide. The pledge from the five-member board, which quadrupled the county's current level of support for hospice programs, included a $400,000 commitment toward establishing a 25-bed facility at Barlow Hospital in Elysian Park.

Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen awarded the first federal funds for construction of health care facilities for AIDS patients. Almost $7 million was granted to 19 facilities in nine states to renovate or build facilities to provide long-term care or non-acute intermediate care for AIDS patients.

Leaders of AIDS support groups that will be barred from holding meetings at Barlow Hospital near downtown Los Angeles labeled as "absurd fabrications" Monday charges that AIDS patients had abused hospital property. The representatives of six groups held an evening meeting at Barlow and resolved to write hospital directors to seek a chance "to defend ourselves." They said they had no knowledge of the behavior alleged by John R. Howard, Barlow's chief administrator.