More than a decade ago, Mission Health announced plans to build an expanded facility on the Memorial Campus of our system’s flagship hospital in Asheville. With that came the end of one era and the start of a new.
The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Asheville to found a hospital in 1900 — just 15 years after Mission Hospital was founded. The current St. Joseph’s facility has served our community since 1974, long before St. Joseph’s joined with Memorial Mission Hospital in 1996 to form Mission-St. Joseph’s Health System and later, Mission Health. We’d known over that last decade that eventually a replacement hospital would be needed to continue caring for the growing and changing health needs of our community.
In 2019, we opened the doors to the beautiful Mission Hospital North Tower, ushering in a new era of healthcare that will serve our friends and family for generations.
Just as we paused then to reflect and celebrate the symbol St. Joseph’s Hospital had represented in our community for decades — a place of care, healing and love, as well as a beloved workplace — we know that yet another change is finally here. And no matter how wonderful new beginnings are, it’s important to remember and honor our past, as well.
Melina Arrowood, chief operating officer of Mission Hospital, shares her reflections about that cherished workplace and all of the memories that have shaped her, her family and many of us across western North Carolina:
"As demolition moves this week to the primary building at the old St. Joseph campus on Biltmore Avenue, I’ve found myself reflecting on just how many lives were shaped inside that building, including my own.
I started my career there nearly 20 years ago, never imagining how deeply connected my family already was to that hospital. My father was born there in the 1950s, and years before that, my grandmother volunteered there as a candy striper. St. Joe’s wasn’t just a hospital to many of us in Asheville; it was part of the fabric of our families and our community.
The building itself held a personality all its own. People still talk about the kindness they felt there and the cafeteria food that somehow always seemed better than hospital food had any right to be. Many of us remember the view from the 10th-floor family waiting room overlooking Asheville, moments of hope and worry shared there, the tiny ER where you truly never knew what might come through the doors next, and that long hallway to Radiology that seemed to stretch forever.
I also had the privilege of being there near the end, among the last executives still working in that building before it closed. By then, we all knew the facility itself had become increasingly challenged as it aged. The building we loved had served this community faithfully for generations, but healthcare had changed, and the needs of patients and staff had changed with it. The opening of Mission Hospital's K Tower in 2019 and Sweeten Creek in 2023 allowed care to continue in modern spaces built for the future while carrying forward the mission that began at St. Joe’s decades ago.
And after Hurricane Helene, the reality became unavoidable. The damage to the aging structure necessitated the closure of Asheville Specialty Hospital, the final service operating there. It truly marked the end of an era.
As hard as it is to say goodbye, I’ve often found myself thinking of the building the same way many of us think about people we love deeply: she had a long and meaningful life, she carried countless people through some of their hardest and happiest moments, and she gave everything she had. Now it’s time to let her rest.
For those of you that want to see mementos, several items from St. Joe's have been preserved in Mission's chapel near outpatient surgery. The demolition team is also taking steps to preserve a couple of key architectural elements that we hope may be able to be repurposed someday on the property.
While the building itself may soon be gone, what happened inside those walls; the care, the friendships, the long shifts, the laughter, the heartbreak and the healing will stay with so many of us forever.
For those of us who knew St. Joe’s, it will always mean something special."