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New Homes To Go Up After Sutter Memorial Goes Down In East Sac

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The quaint community of East Sacramento, with its tree-lined streets and small shops, is now preparing for a sentimental so long for a longtime landmark.

Sutter Memorial Hospital opened in 1937. Some 400,000 births and counting, it's getting ready to close. Now the hospital has filed paperwork to tear down its walls and to build new housing in its place.

"I agree it's sentimental for a lot of people. But part of the problem is this hospital is so old, that its chief value is sentimental," said Councilman Steve Cohn, who represents East Sac.

But there will be no blight for the hallowed hospital grounds.

"Well, you never know, when you have a place that gets decommissioned like that, sometimes people throw up a big chain-linked fence around it," said Paul Noble of the East Sacramento Improvement Association . "Weeds start growing up and it's a mess. We're really glad to hear that's not the case here."

Instead, 100 brand new homes will fit into the newly formed development with a couple new streets and room for a new park.

David Felderstein lives across the street. He's expecting his home value to rise.

"Our traffic will go down," he said. "There will be an attractive new neighborhood across the street."

Realtor Chris Little has some concerns, though.

"There's both pluses and minuses to everything," he said.

He lives and works in East Sacramento and fears for small business here when the hospital employees disappear.

"The economic engine that was there is not going to be there," he said.

Nevertheless, Sutter Memorial will soon simply be a memory. Generations of Sacramentans know it as home to their birthplace. In the next generation, its location may simply be known as home.

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