Owens Community College now has a dated plan for removing three aging buildings across its two campuses. In an official update published November 5, 2026, the college said demolition of the Voorhees House on its Findlay-area campus will begin November 11 and continue for three to four days, while Health Technologies Hall and Bicentennial Hall on its Toledo-area campus in Perrysburg Township are fenced and being prepared for demolition expected to start around December 4 and run through January.
The two Toledo-area halls are the emotional center of the announcement. Health Technologies Hall opened in 1974 and Bicentennial Hall followed in 1976, and for more than five decades the buildings were where northwest Ohio trained much of its healthcare workforce — “preparing thousands of nurses and allied health professionals who now provide patient care throughout the northwest Ohio region,” Owens said in its July 2, 2026 news release announcing the state demolition funding. Health Technologies Hall, a five-story building Owens calls one of the most recognizable landmarks on the Toledo-area campus, has stood on the site where the college held its very first classes in a renovated farm building known as “the Barn” in 1965.
The Findlay building carries a different kind of history. The Voorhees family began farming the Findlay site in 1903, and the farmhouse was part of the land Owens purchased in 2003 to build its Findlay-area campus, which opened in 2006. Owens said the house is being removed over safety concerns related to its structure, and it has hired Klumm Brothers for that demolition. The college is urging students, faculty and staff to keep clear of construction fencing and obey posted warning signs at both campuses while the work proceeds.
One familiar landmark will not survive the project. The large “O” that has crowned Health Technologies Hall since Owens-Illinois donated it in 1979 will be removed and not preserved. Owens said it explored removing, renovating and donating the structure, but estimated salvage costs exceeded $100,000, and the project architect identified lead paint, rust and significant deterioration. The sign that generations of nursing students learned under will come down with the hall it topped.
The demolition is funded by a $991,495 Strategic Square Footage Reduction loan from the Ohio Department of Higher Education, a state loan the college will repay, Owens confirmed in both its July 2 release and its November 5 update. The economics are straightforward: the college first identified deteriorating conditions in the two halls in 2019, consolidated its nursing and allied-health programs into the new Healthcare Education Center — a $27.8 million renovation and expansion completed in 2025 — and closed both halls that year. Even empty, Owens said, the aging buildings cost approximately $217,000 a year to maintain, money the college says will now be redirected to other strategic investments.
Owens President Dr. Dione D. Somerville addressed that balance of legacy and practicality in the college’s July 2, 2026 news release. “These buildings helped shape generations of healthcare professionals and represent an important chapter in our history. We honor that legacy while recognizing our responsibility to prepare the college for the future,” Somerville said in the Owens Community College release. “Our students now learn in state-of-the-art facilities designed for modern healthcare education, and the state investment allows us to continue transforming our campus in ways that best serve students and our region.”
The schedule Owens published runs well into next spring. Interior and exterior preparation at the Toledo-area halls began October 27, with temporary fencing already installed. After demolition work wraps up in January, the parking lots at the site are to be removed in February, and the ground is to be leveled and planted with grass seed in April. The Voorhees House work in Findlay is far shorter — three to four days beginning November 11 — because it involves a single house rather than two multi-story halls.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the dates, the funding, the contractor for the Findlay house, and the fate of the “O.” What we are still waiting on: Owens has not named the demolition contractor for the Toledo-area halls in its November 5 update — Klumm Brothers is named only for the Voorhees House — and the college has not announced any preservation or memorial plans marking the halls’ 50 years of nursing education. Ohio’s healthcare-education story continues elsewhere in the region’s colleges; this fall, for example, Walsh University reported a perfect national exam pass rate for its nursing graduates, a reminder of how many Ohio campuses now carry the training mission Owens’ halls pioneered locally.
What happens next: the Voorhees House comes down in Findlay starting November 11, and the Toledo-area demolition begins around December 4. Beyond the teardown, Owens describes the cleared Toledo-area site as the first step in a gateway project — concepts include a welcoming campus gateway with enhanced landscaping and a signature Owens landmark, to be phased in as funding becomes available, with plans not yet finalized. “As we look ahead, we have an opportunity to create a stronger sense of place from the moment someone enters campus,” Somerville said in the college’s July 2 release. “We want every student and visitor to immediately know they have arrived somewhere special.”
Photo: Mbrickn, CC BY-SA 4.0