You’ve seen the goliath Art Deco structure if you’ve ever driven on the 5 Freeway near downtown Los Angeles. Or the opening sequence of one of the most famous soap operas.
Here at the old General Hospital building in Boyle Heights — sometimes referred to as “The Great Stone Mother” — the county has big plans to bring new life to a massive testament to health care for the most vulnerable.
When you walk up the steps to the old entrance, the towering, Art Deco structure, built in 1933, greets you with watchful statues. Front and center is the Angel of Mercy, flanked by greats of medicine, like Pasteur and Hippocrates.
And a stone etching reminds all who enter that this building was erected to care for people without charge “in order that no citizen of the county shall be deprived of health or life for lack of such care and services.”…