The Mary Pat (Part 2)

by Allison Brookes
EAST LIVERPOOL - In June of 1984, after a six-month financial puzzle, the 50-year-old Mary Patterson Home closed due to lack of funds. At the time of the closing, only 31 rooms were occupied out of the 120 available rooms in the building.

When the “Mary Pat” stopped operating as a residential facility, five full-time employees and one part-time employee lost their jobs, and 31 women were forced to find a new home. The Columbiana County Motor Club’s East Liverpool branch, which maintained offices on the first floor of the building, felt the sting of the shutdown.

In 1987, Kent State University architects looked at the Mary Patterson building and estimated that is would take $2 million to renovate it for offices and classrooms.

The videoconferencing classroom next to the second floor art gallery was made possible by substantial gifts from Sterling China Co. and several East Liverpool residents. When the state donated an additional $800,000 to KSU for capital improvements, the university completed the first floor renovations and most of the second floor.

A second phase of renovation was completed later thanks to more community and state monies, leaving the Mary Pat a modern, multi-purpose learning facility for area college students.