Old Bannock Hospital being demolished

Crews began demolishing the old Bannock Hospital in Pocatello on Wednesday.

The hospital was built in 1950, making it nearly 70 years old. The Portneuf Health Trust bought the property for $2.5 million. In January, the trust announced its decision to tear it down, stating it had been empty too long and had become unusable.

Jeanne Davis is 94 and worked at the hospital for nearly 60 years. She said she worked there longer than anybody and loved every day of it. She said it was a great hospital in its day and so it’s hard to watch a piece of history get torn down.

“I guess it’s progress,” Davis said. “And it was progress when they built it because the other hospital was getting pretty old. But it was really a pretty good hospital, I thought.”

Davis said not only did she work there for many years, but two of her children were born there. So she said watching it get torn down brought back a lot of memories. Even though she’s sad to see it go, she understands it’s necessary.

“I think it’s sad, but it now has to be demolished because they haven’t rented it or taken care of it,” Davis said. “I hate to see it go, but it has to because they couldn’t use it now.

There’s no word yet on what will be put in place of the hospital.