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68. Pensacola's First Modern Hospital 1915

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Updated: Apr 2, 2022


My grandfather James Oscar Elijah Ward obtained a temporary job around 1913 when the Catholic Church began construction on the new Pensacola Hospital on North 12th Avenue. It became Pensacola’s most impressive private institution and would open its doors to the public in 1915. Prior to this time the local physicians used old converted homes filled with inadequate medical equipment. Things were so bad that the doctors usually recommended that their patients travel to larger cities to receive any major surgeries where proper facilities and equipment could be obtained. If they declined the offer the patients forced themselves to be subjected to the trauma of these homemade inefficient operating rooms.


The last of these private facilities was called the Pensacola Hospital and Sanatorium at 104 West Garden Street on the corner of Garden and Devilliers Street, which was subsequently closed in 1915. However, the new hospital under construction was to operate under the Sisters of Charity from Emmitsburg, Maryland. The funds to build it were provided by not only the sisters but also the Bishop of Mobile plus additional donations received from private citizens from all faiths. The architect chosen was A. O. Herbulis and the contract to build the facility was given to the Evan Brothers Construction Company. The construction of the four-story building would cost $400,000 and boasted of its fireproof structure with its modern operating rooms. But keeping with the segregationist practices of the day the east wing of the second floor was devoted to the care and treatment of Creole and Negro patients, while the white patients occupied the rest of the building.


The facility was renamed Sacred Heart Hospital in 1948 and moved to its present location on North 9th Avenue in 1965. In the meantime, the contracts were signed, and the construction materials were collected for the massive project that would take several years to build. One of the materials needed for all the concrete and block work was good old southern gravel. The contract went to the gravel companies in Flomaton, Alabama just over the state line from Century, Florida. It was here in this railroad community that Oscar signed on as a teamster hauling wagon loads of gravel to the depot in Flomaton for rail transport to Pensacola.


The job lasted only until the hospital was completed in 1915 and the structure he helped build is still in use today, however it is no longer used as a hospital but as a conglomerate of numerous independent businesses requiring office space. In the meantime, Oscar showed up for work every morning at sunup and walked over to the corral and picked out his four mules for the day’s haul. He roped each mule one at a time and led them to his wagon to be hitched. Several laborers had already taken the harnesses out of the “tack” shed and had them ready for Oscar when he led the mules out of the corral. After harnessing up the team he snapped his reins and headed the team down to the gravel pits for the first load of the day. He pulled his rig in line behind the other wagons and waited his turn as his mules stood swishing their tails back and forth and snorting through their nostrils. When he got to the front of the line a gang of workers shoveled the gravel from the pile and onto Oscar’s wagon. As soon as it was full Oscar pulled out of the line and headed for the depot where another gang of laborers were waiting to load up the rail cars for the trip to Pensacola. And this he did day after day, six days a week until the hospital was completed in 1915.


James Oscar Elijah Ward (1891-1977)


Construction of Pensacola Hospital (later Sacred Heart Hospital) c1914


Park across from the hospital


Pensacola Hospital 1915


Catholic nuns who comprised the nursing staff


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