Bioworks Foundation Offers Souvenir Bricks From Baptist

The Daily News
August 15, 2006

The Memphis Bioworks Foundation is selling a limited number of bricks from the former Baptist Memorial Hospital building on Union Avenue.

Bricks from the 21-story building, which once housed one of the largest private hospitals in the nation, will come with a letter of authenticity from the Memphis Bioworks Foundation.

The hospital, which officially closed in November 2005, was the site of many notable firsts. The first Mid-South CAT scan was performed there in 1974, as well as the first heart transplant in 1985. Elvis Presley also was pronounced dead in the hospital's emergency room on April 16, 1977.

Baptist Memorial Health Care donated the property in the Memphis Medical Center to the foundation for the future site of the UT-Baptist Research Park. The facility will be completed in six phases, opening in 2016.

The bricks cost $25 if picked up from the foundation and $40 if shipped.

For more information about the bricks, contact the Memphis Bioworks Foundation at 448-8897 or e-mail jthompson@memphisbioworks.org.

This report compiled by Rosalind Guy with contributions from copy editor Kate Simone and reporters Andy Meek and Amy Williams.