University of Michigan Health-Sparrow is scheduled to break ground on a 64-bed, $83 million behavioral health hospital in August.
The hospital will be built on the vacant property just behind UM Health-Sparrow Hospital where the historic Eastern High School once stood.
The high school was Lansing School District’s longest-running school. It first opened its doors in 1928 and remained in operation for 91 years. In early 2025, the building was demolished to make room for UM Health-Sparrow expansion.
Although the newly approved hospital will not feature any tributes to the demolished Eastern High School in its halls, UM Health-Sparrow Lansing President Ann Marie Creed said there are plans for a “remembrance garden” nearby.
“That garden will encompass the cornerstone from the old Eastern High School, as well as arches from the old Eastern High School that we have saved,” she said, “that we meticulously took down when we took down the high school.”
Creed said the garden, which still needs approval from the Lansing City Council, would be built on the corner of Jerome Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
The new hospital will be historic in its own right.
It will be the first in the area to provide in-patient and out-patient behavioral health care to geriatric, adult, child and adolescent patients alike.
Creed said there are no concrete plans for the future of UM Health-Sparrow's St. Lawrence Campus, which currently houses the behavioral health services.
However, she said the University of Michigan is currently discussing the matter with Lansing Mayor Andy Schor and will be seeking community comment in the near future.
UM Health-Sparrow plans to open doors on the new behavioral health facility in 2028.
