Mercy Hospital (St. Petersburg, Florida)
Mercy Hospital | |
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Geography | |
Location | 1344 22nd Street South, African American) |
History | |
Construction started | 1910 |
Opened | 1923 |
Closed | 1966 |
Links | |
Lists | Hospitals in Florida |
Mercy Hospital was a
History
Construction
Before Mercy Hospital, African-Americans relied on a small health care facility named the Good Samaritan.[2] The building was built in 1910 on 6th Avenue South and 7th Street with the purpose to provide health care to whites only.[2] However, it was moved in 1913 to 4th Avenue South and 12th Street to serve blacks only this time, making it the first hospital to serve African-American residents in this community.[3] The health care facility only had five rooms, a few beds and minimal care.[2]
It was replaced in 1923 by Mercy Hospital as a result of the growing African-American community in
Operation
Most of the time, the Mercy Hospital was short staffed and did not have the necessary equipment to offer service to the black community.[2] Nonetheless, Mercy Hospital was a family and everyone gave maximum effort while doing their job. Service was their motto and so they offered compassionate and quality health care to the community's African-Americans. Housekeepers kept the place very clean to avoid the spread of diseases. The pharmacist ordered medications the hospital needed and made sure they were properly prepared. The kitchen staff made sure the meals were always warm and ready for the patients. Finally, and most importantly, volunteers worked very hard without pay; the volunteers assisted by greeting visitors, keeping the patients company, answering phones, as well as many other tasks.
During the mid-1940s Mercy Hospital did not meet the standards of other (white) hospitals.
Influential staff
Primary doctors of the hospital included: Dr. James Ponder, Dr. Breaux Martin, Dr. Fred W. Alsup, Dr. Ralph M. Wimbish, Dr. Orion T. Ayer, Sr., Dr. Harry F. Taliaferro, and Dr. Eugene C. Rose. They treated illnesses and accident victims, delivered babies, fixed broken bones, listened to the problems of their patients and gave them caring advice.
In 1926 Dr.
Dr. Fred W. Alsup came to live in the city of St. Petersburg in 1950.
Dr. Ralph M. Wimbish served as a physician in St. Petersburg from 1952 until his death in 1967. He was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and president of St. Petersburg's branch of the NAACP. He was also the founder of the most influential group in St. Petersburg during the beginning of the civil rights movement, called the Ambassadors Club.[2] He founded the club in 1953 after getting inspired to "wake up and do something to help our community", as he was forced by the city to put his swimming pool in his front yard because otherwise it would have been near the north side of 15th Avenue South, which at the time was what divided blacks from whites residential areas.[2] Members of the club included: Dr. Orion Ayer Sr., Dr. Robert J. Swain, Dr. Fred Alsup, Samuel Blossom, Sidney Campbell, George Grogan, John Hopkins, Ernest Ponder and Emanuel Stewart.[2] Since then, the organization rapidly came to be a "civic and service club of distinction with the purpose of improving cultural, economic, educational and living conditions primarily in the African American community.[2] In 1954, it made possible for African-American floats to be included in the city's annual showcase parade.[2] In the same year, the organization honored Jennie L. Hall, a white woman who donated $25,000 for the construction of a swimming pool on 22nd Street, which is still used today by the community.[2] Dr. Wimbish with the help and influence of the Ambassadors Club, integrated the swimming spot named Spa Beach and Howard Johnson's lunch counter on U.S Highway 19.[2] In 1969, C. Bette Wimbish, his lifetime wife and now widow, became the first black person to be on the St. Petersburg City Council.[2]
Dr. Orion T. Ayer, Sr. was a physician in St. Petersburg from 1949 to 1984. He was elected in 1964 as Chief of the Division of General Practice at Mercy and Mound Park Hospital.
Dr. Breaux Martin was part of the Mercy family for nine years. He was one of the only two black physicians in the community. In 1949 he moved to Ohio to look for more opportunities.
Dr. Harry F. Taliaferro became part of the Mercy family in the mid-1950s. He was an activist of civil rights and passionate tennis player. He fought very hard to integrate local tennis courts. His patients and friends called him "Dr. T." or "Tally". He was a graduate of Howard University School of Medicine. He practiced for more than 35 years.
Dr. Eugene C. Rose started his medical practice in St. Petersburg in 1953. He served the African-American community for 29 years. He was an associate trustee of
Other Mercy staff included some white doctors such as Drs. Johnny Clark, Benjamin L. Jones, Robert J. Swain, Robert Landstra, Royce Hobby, Alan Campbell, John Thompson, and Frank Fazio. Some whites indeed helped Mercy Hospital and the community overall For instance, doctors would come over and treat black patients who were not permitted to enter their offices.[2] Dr. Gideon Timberlake was one of these doctors. Mound Hospital also would send them surgical instruments, and they helped them get their own sterilizer.[2] A black woman named Minnie C. Rogers was the administrator at Mercy Hospital.[2]
Some of the most influential nurses included: Mary Brayboy Jones (1946-mid 1960s), Sadie Henry, Hanna Singleton, Yvonne Taylor, Annie Sue Martin Brinson and Dolores Gordon.
Closure
The hospital had difficulty covering its monthly operating costs since its opening in 1926.[4] The hospital relied on payments that totaled anywhere from $3 to $15. This is much less than the typical $30 per day that a patient usually pays for hospital treatment.[4]
Due to the insufficient payments from patients as well as inadequate health insurance, Mercy Hospital had financial difficulties from the beginning. Along with the lack of full payments from patients, Mercy Hospital also was forced to deal with the revolutionizing technological advances for better patient care.[4] The low payments from patients, as well as low funding from outside sources, made it very difficult for Mercy Hospital to keep up to date with their technology as well as their construction.[4] Mercy Hospital could not afford to keep a high staff or proper instruments to do daily tests for patients. This increased the wait time for medical results. There were also a shortage of beds inside the hospital so the patient turn-around time also increased, making it more difficult to get through a lot of patients in a single day.[4] The low funding and lack of employees led to multiple extensive problems that piled on top of each other. The hospital struggled with these issues for so long that it turned into a financial crisis.[1]
Unfortunately, in 1965, the hospital was denied accreditation when a baby was burned due to a defective
Renovation
After closing its doors in 1966, doctors and patients were transferred to Mound Park Hospital.[5] The transition was not easy for the city of St. Petersburg. Mound Park started accepting black patients in 1964, but the black community still preferred Mercy Hospital because it was in the center of their community and was what they were comfortable with.[5] In 1998, the facility was purchased back by the city due to a lack of redevelopment and more and more deterioration for $142,000.[2] It was later leased to Community Health Centers of Pinellas, Inc.[2] Renovations were made to Mercy Hospital and in 2004, the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center was added to the site and patients still actively seek medical help there today.[5]
Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center
The Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center was constructed on the site of Mercy Hospital as African-Americans required a top health care facility. Prior to construction, medical care was provided to Mercy Hospital patients at Community Health Centers of Pinellas' facility located at 1310 22nd Street Avenue South. This
The new, state-of-the-art health center was built to serve the great need for quality healthcare. The new health center, which began construction on February 1, 2003, was built alongside and connected to the Historic Mercy Hospital. On February 2, 2004, the newly constructed hospital, named Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center, in honor of Dr. Johnnie Ruth Clarke, started admitting patients of all backgrounds.[2] This 26,000-square-foot (2,400 m2) facility does not have hospital beds, but it gives medical services to poor people and those who have been medically underserved.[2] It provides prenatal, obstetrical, pediatric, and dental care as well as services in internal medicine, family planning and behavioral medicine.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Mercy Hospital" (PDF). September 30, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 1-883982-45-6.
- ^ a b c Reese, Gwen (November 2, 2018). "Mercy Hospital and its pioneering physicians". The Weekly Challenger. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f Jones, Peyton L., "Struggle in the Sunshine City: The movement for racial equality in St. Petersburg, Florida, 1955-1968" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1672
- ^ a b c Shonel, Raven Joy (July 28, 2016). "Keeping the history of Mercy Hospital alive". The Weekly Challenger. Retrieved November 23, 2018.