Providence lost: Old hospital goes boom as neighborhood watches, reminisces.

Publication: Waco Tribune-Herald (Waco, TX)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Waco Tribune-Herald

Byline: Bill Whitaker

Oct. 9--Demolition crew members popped champagne corks, lit cigars and congratulated one another by dawn's early light Sunday after the successful implosion of the old Providence Hospital at North 18th Street and Colcord Avenue.

"It went well," 23-year-old crew member Brad Johnson said after a series of lightning-quick detonations turned the six-story, century-old, oft-remodeled hospital into rubble. "Definitely a success."

Several yards away, tears welled in the aging eyes of Sister Josephine Cusimano, a one-time administrator of the hospital who had seen it greatly expanded during her watch decades ago.

"It still looks so good to me," she said moments before putting her finger to a detonation device in the parking lot of a convenience store across the street from the abandoned hospital.

Sunday's detonation was a big step toward clearing the...

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