Riverside Osteopathic Hospital

Riverside Osteopathic Hospital in Trenton, Michigan, began as a private riverside mansion built in the late nineteenth century by businessman Austin Church, a one-time owner of the Sibley Quarry who was associated with the Arm & Hammer brand. The home was built for his wife and overlooked the Detroit River in the Downriver community of Trenton, in Wayne County.

In 1943 the Church family donated the property so it could serve a medical purpose, and the conversion of the mansion into a functioning hospital was completed in 1944 at a cost of roughly $100,000. Over the following decades the institution grew, with modern hospital wings added around the original mansion structure, becoming a fixture of Downriver healthcare as Riverside Osteopathic Hospital.

The hospital faced mounting financial difficulty in its final years, reportedly losing some $21 million between 1998 and 2002. In July 2002 it was merged into the Henry Ford Health System through Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, and in October 2002 Henry Ford announced the facility would close. The hospital shut its doors on November 15, 2002.

The vacant complex sat for years and became a frequent subject of urban-exploration photography. Following a December 2021 agreement among the City of Trenton, property owner Dr. Iqbal Nasir, and NABA Management, demolition of the building began, and as of August 2023 the structure was being torn down. Note that the popular ghost-story version of the building's origins — claiming the entire Church family died and that Henry Ford personally bought the house in 1944 — is not accurate; the family donated the property, and the Henry Ford connection came only through the 2002 merger.