MaineHealth plans to demolish its century-old nursing school, the Portland-based system said Feb. 12.
The system's Southern Maine Health Care in Sanford will tear down the location, called the Woodbury Building, beginning Feb. 23. It has "become prohibitively expensive to maintain, no longer meets current building code for clinical or administrative space and is not fit for refurbishment or expansion," the system said in a news release. It will become a green space.
The building was erected in 1929 to serve as the hospital's nursing school and house the nurses who worked there 12 hours a day, six days a week. In 1986, it was named after Dorothy Woodbury, RN, in celebration of the nurse director who was in the school's first graduating class.
Ms. Woodbury worked at the hospital for more than 55 years, according to the release, and some items will be saved to continue honoring her legacy.