Caring For Dallas: A History of Our Hospitals

Parkland is Dallas County’s public hospital. The original hospital opened in 1894 in a wooden structure built on a 17-acre meadow, located at Oak Lawn Ave. and Maple, originally designated by the city for use as a park. The name ‘Parkland’ was literally derived from the donated land on which the hospital was built. A brick building later replaced the wooden facility. The cornerstone was laid on March 18, 1913. The building was completed on February 1, 1914, with a capacity of 100 beds — the first brick hospital built in Texas.

The original hospital building on Bryan Street, part of St. Paul’s Sanitarium, opened its doors on June 15, 1898, providing 110 beds to the Dallas community. The hospital was served by nurses of the Roman Catholic Order. Later, The St. Paul School of Nursing  was established in 1900, offering “hands on” education during its 71 years of operation. Students studied, lived and  worked in the hospital during their intensive three years of training.

In 1906, a free clinic was opened in the hospital’s basement with Sister Brendan O’Beirne in charge. The clinic  finally had  its own building, the Marillac Clinic, to serve  the  predominantly Hispanic  neighborhood  in Dallas’ Little Mexico.

The hospital’s reputation grew as an  alliance with UT Southwestern Medical School prompted the change of the name to  St. Paul Medical Center.  In  December 2000 UT Southwestern purchased  the  hospital’s physical assets, renaming  it the St. Paul University Hospital. On November 20, 2015, the  demolition of the  hospital was completed, thus closing the chapter of this famous hospital that served both the  rich  and  the poor.

Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium (later to become Baylor University Hospital), chartered on Oct. 16, 1903, by the state of Texas, began in a 14-room renovated house. A new building later opened at 3315 Junius Street in 1909.

The hospital was founded through the efforts of several individuals. The land was earlier the site of Dr. Charles M. Rosser's privately-owned Good Samaritan Hospital. Rosser sold his hospital, and it became the first Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium building. In addition, Rev. George W. Truett, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, convinced Dallas citizens “to build a great humanitarian hospital.” Colonel C.C. Slaughter (pictured), a devout Baptist and wealthy cattleman, also gave a major gift of $50,000 to establish the hospital.

In 1924, local ministers of the United Methodist Church and civic leaders broke ground for the hospital. Among the many donors, physicians who were to be on the medical staff donated $100,000 towards the $552,267 endeavor. On Christmas Eve, the 100-bed facility opened as Dallas Methodist Hospital. In 1951, a three-story student nurse's residence was constructed near the hospital and in 1966, the Martin and Charlotte Weiss Educational Building opened, providing classroom space for nursing education and a large auditorium for community programs.

The Medical Arts Building, which opened in 1923 on the corner of St. Paul and Pacific streets, primarily contained offices for physicians and dentists. For many years it was the hub of medical activity in Dallas, including the Samuell Clinic, and the office of surgeon and famous Dallas benefactor, Dr. William Worthington Samuell. The building was demolished in 1977.