A law firm hired to search for heirs to the estate that deeded Smalley Park to the city has located some 20 people who could have some claim on the property, including some prominent East Coast names.
The site became home to Shawano Medical Center (SMC) in 1931, in spite of a deed restriction saying the property had to be used as a park.
With SMC planning to relocate, city officials engaged the law firm of Davis and Kuelthau to track down the heirs and get their approval to strike the park restriction from the original deed.
According to the deed restriction, the property reverts back to the heirs if it is used for anything other than a park.
Officials have no explanation for why a hospital was allowed to locate on the property, and there is nothing in the record that shows the deed restriction was ever waived.
The property now home to SMC was originally part of a larger property owned by Andrew Smalley and later became the possession of his widow, Susan, who donated a three-acre parcel to the city in 1901, according to a news article in the April 30, 1931, edition of the Shawano County Journal about plans for a hospital on the site.
SMC purchased additional land for expansion over the years, and the hospital campus now occupies about 10 acres. The deed restriction applies only to the original three.
“Mrs. Smalley is gone and her direct descendants are gone, but there are heirs who we believe would have a say in this,” City Administrator Brian Knapp said.
“They’re all on the East Coast,” he said. “Maybe some prominent families. Maybe some of whom you’ve seen in the news occasionally.”
Knapp made his comments at a meeting of the ad hoc task force exploring possible uses for the property after SMC relocates. He declined after the meeting to get any more specific about the names.
Knapp said the list of about 20 possible heirs would be narrowed down to those who can be confirmed and a letter would go out to them, possibly by the end of the month, requesting a waiver of the deed restriction.
Knapp said any private or commercial development of the hospital site would hinge on developers being able to prove they have clear title to the property.
Knapp said it could take two months to go through the process of getting the waivers, assuming the heirs are willing to do that.
However, Knapp said, there is the possibility the heirs could take the property back, given that the deed restriction was apparently violated.
“They could take it back. Hopefully if they do, they’ll do something with it,” Knapp said.
There are reasons why the heirs might not want the property back, including the financial burden of property taxes and the cost of maintaining the property and the 160,000-square-foot hospital building.
“It’s a pretty sizable liability if you have to maintain it,” he said.
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