Homer G. Phillips Hospital
Encyclopedia
Homer G. Phillips Hospital was a hospital
located at 2601 Garrison Street in The Ville
neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri
. It was the city's only hospital for African-Americans from 1937 until 1955, when city hospitals were desegregated, and continued to serve the black community of St. Louis until its closure in 1979. While in operation, it was one of the few hospitals in the United States
where black Americans could train as doctors and nurses, and by 1961, Homer G. Phillips Hospital had trained the "largest number of black doctors and nurses in the world." It closed as a full-service hospital in 1979. While vacant, it was listed as a St. Louis Landmark in 1980 and on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1982. It reopened as senior living apartments in 2003.
When the bond issue was passed in 1923, the city refused to allocate funding for the hospital, instead advocating for a segregated addition to the original City Hospital, located far from the black community in the Peabody-Darst-Webbe
neighborhood. Phillips again led the efforts for the original plan, successfully debating the St. Louis Board of Aldermen
for allocation of funds toward a new hospital. Site acquisition resulted in the purchase of 6.3 acres in the Ville, the center of the black community of St. Louis. However, before construction could begin, the leader of the push for the hospital, Homer G. Phillips, was shot and killed. Although two men were arrested and charged with the crime, they were acquitted and Phillips' murder remains unsolved.
Construction on the site began in October 1932, initially using funds from the 1923 bond issue and later from the newly formed Public Works Administration
. City architect Albert Osburg was the primary designer of the building, which was completed in phases. The central building was finished between 1933 and 1935, while the two wings were finished between 1936 and 1937. The hospital was dedicated on February 22, 1937, with a parade and speeches by Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark
, St. Louis Mayor Bernard Francis Dickmann, and Secretary of the Interior
Harold L. Ickes
. Speaking to the black community of St. Louis, Ickes noted that the hospital would help the community "achieve your rightful place in our economic system." It was renamed from City Hospital #2 in honor of Homer G. Phillips in 1942.
included more than one third of all graduates from the two American black medical schools, and in the 1940s and 1950s it was a leader in developing the practice of intravenous feeding and treatments for gunshot wounds, ulcers, and burn
s. Not only did it house a nursing school
, but also schools for training x-ray technicians, laboratory technicians and medical record-keeping. It also began offering training and work to foreign doctors who were being denied by other hospitals because of their race.
After a 1955 order by Mayor Raymond Tucker
to desegregate city hospitals, Homer G. Phillips began admitting patients regardless of race, color or religious beliefs. However, it remained a primarily black institution into the 1960s. In 1960, each department of the hospital was staffed by at least one black doctor who also was a staff member of either Washington University in St. Louis
or Saint Louis University
, and in 1962, three-fourths of the interns at the hospital were black.
for Missouri's 1st district
), others accepted the notion. Local NAACP official Ernest Galloway said, "Giving up the hospital may be the price we have to pay for an integrated community." By the mid-1960s, efforts were underway to reduce services at the hospital or close it entirely. In the late 1960s, St. Louis city moved the neurological and psychiatric departments of Homer G. Phillips to City Hospital, citing the low pay at Homer G. Phillips and distance from Washington University staff who were affiliated with City Hospital as reasons for the move.
From 1964 until 1979, no other departments were moved. However, on August 17, 1979, St. Louis abruptly closed all departments at Homer G. Phillips Hospital except for a small outpatient care clinic housed in an adjacent building. The closure brought about significant protests and required more than a hundred police officers to escort remaining patients out. William Lacy Clay, Sr. again led opposition to the closure, and many in the community charged that the closure was racially motivated. Picketing and protests outside the hospital continued for more than a year after the closure, and a community group called Campaign for Human Dignity was formed to continue the movement. Mayor James F. Conway commissioned a task force to study the issue of the hospital, but nothing resulted of the plan, and the protests were ultimately unsuccessful in reopening the hospital.
In the midst of the protests, the hospital was listed by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen as a St. Louis Landmark in February 1980. In 1981, after a contentious primary with incumbent Mayor Conway, Alderman Vincent Schoemehl was elected mayor of St. Louis on a campaign promising to reopen Homer G. Phillips. Instead, Schoemehl deferred to the Conway task force. The next year, the hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1982 for its significance in architecture, education and to black history. In spite of the listing, in June 1985 Schoemehl ordered the closure of all municipal hospital services, both at City Hospital and at the clinic at Homer G. Phillips. St. Louis area public hospital services were consolidated in nearby Clayton, Missouri
, and the Homer G. Phillips complex became entirely vacant.
, but these efforts failed when agreements to lease the property stalled. The property was abandoned until 1991, when the city reopened the adjacent clinic, and the nurses' building behind the main hospital also was reopened as an addition to Annie Malone Children's Home
. However, the main building remained vacant. In 1998, the daughter of William Thomas, Sharon Thomas Robnett, renewed negotiations to turn the building into a low-income nursing home and apartments for the elderly, and successfully signed a 99-year lease on the property.
In December 2001, renovations began on the main building through Robnett's development company, W.A.T. Dignity Corp., continuing through July 2003. The renovation project, led by architects of the Fleming Corporation, cost more than $42 million and produced a 220-unit supervised facility for the elderly, named Homer G. Phillips Dignity House. In response to focus groups, the developers upgraded security measures at the site, including adding a perimeter fence, surveillance cameras, and remote keyless entry. In addition to including apartments for the elderly, the facility provides adult daycare, respite care
, pharmacy
, mental health
and substance abuse treatment programs.
of the central building was modified with a canopy entrance extension of the emergency room facilities, obscuring the first three stories of the building. All buildings in the complex are yellow brick with terra cotta
trim.
Although many hospitals were constructed in the 1920s as skyscrapers, Homer G. Phillips was designed with seven stories to fit within the scale of the Ville neighborhood. A variety of roof shapes and polygonal ends on the patient wards add to the design of the building. The detailing on the building's exterior consists of a red granite base and terra cotta trim around windows and as a horizontal course around the buildings. Original secondary buildings such as the nurses' building and lecture halls (connected to the main building via tunnel) are included as the part of hospital's designation on the National Register of Historic Places. However, a detached clinic built in 1960 is not included.
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
located at 2601 Garrison Street in The Ville
The Ville, St. Louis
The Ville is a historic neighborhood located in North St. Louis, Missouri.This neighborhood is bounded by St. Louis Avenue on the North, Martin Luther King drive on the South, Sarah on the East and Taylor on the West....
neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. It was the city's only hospital for African-Americans from 1937 until 1955, when city hospitals were desegregated, and continued to serve the black community of St. Louis until its closure in 1979. While in operation, it was one of the few hospitals in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where black Americans could train as doctors and nurses, and by 1961, Homer G. Phillips Hospital had trained the "largest number of black doctors and nurses in the world." It closed as a full-service hospital in 1979. While vacant, it was listed as a St. Louis Landmark in 1980 and on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1982. It reopened as senior living apartments in 2003.
Construction
Between 1910 and 1920, the black population of St. Louis increased by sixty percent, yet the public City Hospital was segregated, with no facilities for black patients or staff. Thus, a group of black community members persuaded the city in 1919 to purchase a 177-bed hospital (formerly owned by Barnes Hospital) at Garrison and Lawson avenues on the north side of the city. This hospital, denoted City Hospital #2, was inadequate to the needs of more than 70,000 black St. Louisans, and local black attorney Homer G. Phillips led a campaign for a civic improvements bond issue that would provide for the construction of a larger black hospital.When the bond issue was passed in 1923, the city refused to allocate funding for the hospital, instead advocating for a segregated addition to the original City Hospital, located far from the black community in the Peabody-Darst-Webbe
Peabody/Darst/Webbe, St. Louis
Peabody–Darst–Webbe is a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It is also called the Near Southside neighborhood. Peabody–Darst–Webbe is an area bounded by S. Tucker Blvd. on the east, Chouteau Ave. on the north, Dolman Street on the west, and the I-55/I-44 interchange on...
neighborhood. Phillips again led the efforts for the original plan, successfully debating the St. Louis Board of Aldermen
Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis
The Board of Aldermen, is the municipal legislature of the independent City of St. Louis, Missouri.-Composition:It consists of 28 aldermen from each of the city's wards...
for allocation of funds toward a new hospital. Site acquisition resulted in the purchase of 6.3 acres in the Ville, the center of the black community of St. Louis. However, before construction could begin, the leader of the push for the hospital, Homer G. Phillips, was shot and killed. Although two men were arrested and charged with the crime, they were acquitted and Phillips' murder remains unsolved.
Construction on the site began in October 1932, initially using funds from the 1923 bond issue and later from the newly formed Public Works Administration
Public Works Administration
The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...
. City architect Albert Osburg was the primary designer of the building, which was completed in phases. The central building was finished between 1933 and 1935, while the two wings were finished between 1936 and 1937. The hospital was dedicated on February 22, 1937, with a parade and speeches by Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark
Lloyd C. Stark
Lloyd Crow Stark was the 39th Governor of the U.S. state of Missouri. He was a Democrat.Stark was born in Louisiana, Missouri. Stark is a 1908 graduate of the United States Naval Academy. After serving four years as a naval officer, Stark went into the family business, the Stark Brothers...
, St. Louis Mayor Bernard Francis Dickmann, and Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of the Interior
The Secretary of the Interior may refer to:* The United States Secretary of the Interior* The Secretario de Gobernación Secretary of the Interior...
Harold L. Ickes
Harold L. Ickes
Harold LeClair Ickes was a United States administrator and politician. He served as United States Secretary of the Interior for 13 years, from 1933 to 1946, the longest tenure of anyone to hold the office, and the second longest serving Cabinet member in U.S. history next to James Wilson. Ickes...
. Speaking to the black community of St. Louis, Ickes noted that the hospital would help the community "achieve your rightful place in our economic system." It was renamed from City Hospital #2 in honor of Homer G. Phillips in 1942.
Operation
Although by 1944 the hospital ranked among the ten largest general hospitals in the United States, it was consistently underfunded and understaffed. By 1948, its medical residentsResidency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...
included more than one third of all graduates from the two American black medical schools, and in the 1940s and 1950s it was a leader in developing the practice of intravenous feeding and treatments for gunshot wounds, ulcers, and burn
Burn
A burn is an injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation, or friction.Burn may also refer to:*Combustion*Burn , type of watercourses so named in Scotland and north-eastern England...
s. Not only did it house a nursing school
Nursing school
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world.-United Kingdom:...
, but also schools for training x-ray technicians, laboratory technicians and medical record-keeping. It also began offering training and work to foreign doctors who were being denied by other hospitals because of their race.
After a 1955 order by Mayor Raymond Tucker
Raymond Tucker
Raymond Tucker was the thirty-eighth Mayor of St. Louis, serving from 1953 to 1965.- Personal life and early career :...
to desegregate city hospitals, Homer G. Phillips began admitting patients regardless of race, color or religious beliefs. However, it remained a primarily black institution into the 1960s. In 1960, each department of the hospital was staffed by at least one black doctor who also was a staff member of either Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
or Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
, and in 1962, three-fourths of the interns at the hospital were black.
Closure
As early as 1961, proposals to merge Homer G. Phillips with City Hospital were being made. Although some leaders in the black community opposed the idea (such as William Lacy Clay, Sr., then a city alderman and later U.S. representativeUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for Missouri's 1st district
Missouri's 1st congressional district
Missouri's first congressional district is in the eastern portion of the state. It includes much of Northern St. Louis City and St. Louis County....
), others accepted the notion. Local NAACP official Ernest Galloway said, "Giving up the hospital may be the price we have to pay for an integrated community." By the mid-1960s, efforts were underway to reduce services at the hospital or close it entirely. In the late 1960s, St. Louis city moved the neurological and psychiatric departments of Homer G. Phillips to City Hospital, citing the low pay at Homer G. Phillips and distance from Washington University staff who were affiliated with City Hospital as reasons for the move.
From 1964 until 1979, no other departments were moved. However, on August 17, 1979, St. Louis abruptly closed all departments at Homer G. Phillips Hospital except for a small outpatient care clinic housed in an adjacent building. The closure brought about significant protests and required more than a hundred police officers to escort remaining patients out. William Lacy Clay, Sr. again led opposition to the closure, and many in the community charged that the closure was racially motivated. Picketing and protests outside the hospital continued for more than a year after the closure, and a community group called Campaign for Human Dignity was formed to continue the movement. Mayor James F. Conway commissioned a task force to study the issue of the hospital, but nothing resulted of the plan, and the protests were ultimately unsuccessful in reopening the hospital.
In the midst of the protests, the hospital was listed by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen as a St. Louis Landmark in February 1980. In 1981, after a contentious primary with incumbent Mayor Conway, Alderman Vincent Schoemehl was elected mayor of St. Louis on a campaign promising to reopen Homer G. Phillips. Instead, Schoemehl deferred to the Conway task force. The next year, the hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1982 for its significance in architecture, education and to black history. In spite of the listing, in June 1985 Schoemehl ordered the closure of all municipal hospital services, both at City Hospital and at the clinic at Homer G. Phillips. St. Louis area public hospital services were consolidated in nearby Clayton, Missouri
Clayton, Missouri
Clayton is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis and the county seat of St. Louis County, Missouri. The population was 15,939 at the 2010 census. The city was organized in 1877 and is named after Ralph Clayton, who donated the land for the courthouse.-Geography:...
, and the Homer G. Phillips complex became entirely vacant.
Renovation
In 1988, a developer named William Thomas began negotiations to turn the former Homer G. Phillips Hospital into a nursing homeNursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
, but these efforts failed when agreements to lease the property stalled. The property was abandoned until 1991, when the city reopened the adjacent clinic, and the nurses' building behind the main hospital also was reopened as an addition to Annie Malone Children's Home
Annie Malone
Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was an African-American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist. In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered around cosmetics for African-American...
. However, the main building remained vacant. In 1998, the daughter of William Thomas, Sharon Thomas Robnett, renewed negotiations to turn the building into a low-income nursing home and apartments for the elderly, and successfully signed a 99-year lease on the property.
In December 2001, renovations began on the main building through Robnett's development company, W.A.T. Dignity Corp., continuing through July 2003. The renovation project, led by architects of the Fleming Corporation, cost more than $42 million and produced a 220-unit supervised facility for the elderly, named Homer G. Phillips Dignity House. In response to focus groups, the developers upgraded security measures at the site, including adding a perimeter fence, surveillance cameras, and remote keyless entry. In addition to including apartments for the elderly, the facility provides adult daycare, respite care
Respite care
Respite care is the provision of short-term, temporary relief to those who are caring for family members who might otherwise require permanent placement in a facility outside the home....
, pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
and substance abuse treatment programs.
Architecture
The original Homer G. Phillips complex includes a main central building, four wards connected to the central building (forming an X shape), a service and power plant building, and a nurses' residence behind the main building. The original facadeFacade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
of the central building was modified with a canopy entrance extension of the emergency room facilities, obscuring the first three stories of the building. All buildings in the complex are yellow brick with terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
trim.
Although many hospitals were constructed in the 1920s as skyscrapers, Homer G. Phillips was designed with seven stories to fit within the scale of the Ville neighborhood. A variety of roof shapes and polygonal ends on the patient wards add to the design of the building. The detailing on the building's exterior consists of a red granite base and terra cotta trim around windows and as a horizontal course around the buildings. Original secondary buildings such as the nurses' building and lecture halls (connected to the main building via tunnel) are included as the part of hospital's designation on the National Register of Historic Places. However, a detached clinic built in 1960 is not included.
See also
- History of St. Louis, MissouriHistory of St. Louis, MissouriThe history of St. Louis, Missouri begins with the settlement of the St. Louis area by Native American mound builders who lived as part of the Mississippian culture from the 800s to the 1400s, followed by other migrating tribal groups...
- List of hospitals of St. Louis, Missouri
- National Register of Historic Places listings in St. Louis (city, A–L), Missouri
- Racial segregation in the United StatesRacial segregation in the United StatesRacial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
- Race and healthRace and healthRace and health research, often done in the United States, has found both current and historical racial differences in the frequency, treatments, and availability of treatments for several diseases. This can add up to significant group differences in variables such as life expectancy...