Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Saint Mary's Infirmary began on this site in 1877 and received various additions over the years up through the 1940's. The well-renowned SSM Healthcare actually began here at this location. According to the history page of SSM's own website "SSM Health Care traces its roots to 1872, when Mother Mary Odilia Berger and four other sisters came to St. Louis from Germany, after caring for sick and wounded soldiers during the Franco-Prussian War. Facing religious persecution in Germany, they came to the United States for two reasons: to preserve their call to live in religious community and to be of service to people in need. When they arrived in St. Louis on November 16, 1872, they had but $5 among them, and they began providing nursing care to people in their own homes. That winter, when a smallpox epidemic hit St. Louis, the sisters cared for the sick and dying. For a short time, people referred to them as the Smallpox Sisters. In 1874, the congregation received its formal name: the Sisters of St. Mary (SSM). They were so named because their convent shared a door with St. Mary of Victories Church (which is still active) in downtown St. Louis".
The first Saint Mary's Infirmary, illustrated here, was a residential property on a nice piece of land at the corner of 15th and Papin which was deemed suitable for use. The house was formerly owned by Carl Schurz who later became the United States Secretary of the Interior. In 1877, the Sisters were able to secure a loan for $16,000 to purchase this property to which they soon added a chapel which was dedicated to the "Mother of Sorrows". By June 1st of the same year, Saint Mary's Infirmary admitted its first six patients. They soon added a pharmacy in which they made their own extracts, tinctures and pills from various roots and herbs.
The Infirmary quickly outgrew its original home. In 1887, plans were made to build a modern, purpose-built 5 story hospital building measuring 80' long and 40' wide at the cost of $62,000. The cornerstone was placed directly in front of the original residence on July 11, 1887 and on February 12, 1889 it officially opened. Shorly after construction began, however, a disaster was narrowly averted. Heavy rainfall during November of 1888 compromised the foundation of the new building to such a degree that the wall was on the verge of collapsing. Workmen who had arrived on the morning of November 9, 1888 alerted the Sisters to the danger of this wall collapsing on their residence. About an hour after the Sisters had evacuated themselves along with all the patients inside, the wall collapsed and destroyed the building and would have likely killed or injured all of them as a result.
Until a new laundry building was constructed in 1891, all laundry was washed and ironed by hand. This was a laborious task which took a full two days to complete. In 1892, several of the outbuildings including the original chapel and pharmacy were demolished and their bricks used in the construction of a new chapel. By 1895, Saint Mary's Infirmary had once again outgrown itself and a new 80x40' wing was added and this was completed on November 29, 1896. The new wing doubled the capacity such that the Infirmary could now house 150 patients. Yet again, in 1905, the Infirmary was at capacity and needed to expand. At the cost of another $60,000, the latest addition was 50x50', five stories tall and had a rooftop garden.
The St. Mary's Infirmary School of Nursing began in 1907 and the first class graduated in 1910. In 1924, the SMI school of nursing was transferred to the new St. Mary's Hospital which had been built in the western suburbs of the city in 1924 and in 1928 the nursing program was reorganized to become St. Louis University School of Nursing. In 1933, through a donation from the family of Firmin Desloge, $1 Million USD was donated to SLU and the Sisters of Saint Mary to erect the Firmin Desloge Hospital. This new hospital replaced Saint Mary's Infirmary as the University's hospital and with it, the patients were moved to the new facility. Through all this, however, Saint Mary's Infirmary continued to care for the sick and poor in the area. The Sisters of Saint Mary retained ownership and control of their institution and decided to focus their mission on the care and treatment, as well as medical and religious instruction, for the underserved minority population of the city of Saint Louis.
In October of 1933, the Sisters of St Mary, having recognized a need in the community, opened "St Mary's Infirmary School of Nursing for the Colored" which was the only Catholic School for minority students in the United States. This was a historic undertaking at a time when most states refused to accept nurses based upon the color of their skin. This ultimately resulted in 362 nurses graduating whose opportunities in this field were otherwise virtually non-existent. This school earned an excellent reputation and proved that "the Negro Physician was as competent as his white confrere in the operation of a hospital". The last class was admitted in 1955 and the school closed upon the graduating of the class of 1958. Saint Mary's Infirmary was eventually closed down in 1979.
The former Saint Mary's Infirmary later saw use a nursing home, detox center and halfway house. Some of the newer additions were in use by other organizations until 1994.
Update: St Mary's Infirmary was demolished in 2016
Source(s): A History of the Sisters of St. Mary, 1922; A History of Saint Mary's Infirmary School of Nursing by Clemmie Jean Smith, 1958
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