A restored Hillcrest structure with an unexpected history (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)

Did You Know…

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

that the three-level wooden structure housing Better Buzz Coffee Roasters at 801 University Ave. in Hillcrest was once a place where appendectomies, amputations, tonsillectomies, and rudimentary Caesarean sections for complicated births were performed?

The structure was built in 1919. It started off on the north side of University Avenue, serving as a surgical annex for the former St. Joseph’s Hospital. But its medical use was brief, lasting only until 1924 when St. Joseph’s moved a little west to its current location, where Scripps Mercy Hospital now stands.

Shortly thereafter, the annex was acquired by commercial owners, who moved it across the street to the current address. Over the decades, it housed a variety of businesses while successfully dodging demolition along the way despite its aging bones. Although 2017 Better Buzz took over the building and gave it an exquisite multi-million-dollar historic renovation.