Watts Hospital | |
Location | Broad St. and Club Blvd., Durham, North Carolina |
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Coordinates | 36°1′7.094″N78°55′12.352″W / 36.01863722°N 78.92009778°W |
Area | 27 acres (11 ha) |
Built | 1908-1909 |
Architectural style | Mission/Spanish Revival [1] |
NRHP reference No. | 80002824 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 2, 1980 [1] |
Watts Hospital, located in Durham, North Carolina was the city's first hospital, operating between 1895 and 1976.
The hospital opened in 1895, funded entirely by George W. Watts, as a private, 22-bed, modern hospital dedicated to the care of Durham's white citizens and offered free care to those unable to pay. [2] The hospital became public in 1953 and closed 1976, when Durham County General Hospital opened. The grounds and buildings of the hospital's 1909 campus were converted to become the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, which began classes in 1980.
The original Watts Hospital was established in 1895, on land donated by George Watts, with an endowment of $50,000, provided solely by Watts. [3] The land fronted on West Main Street with Guess Road (later renamed Buchanan Blvd.) to the west and Watts Street to the east. By 1909, the 22-bed hospital was insufficient for the explosive growth of Durham, and new, larger facility was built on 25 acres (10.1 ha) at the intersection of Club Boulevard and Broad Street, where the hospital remained until it closed in 1976. [4] Watts donated another $500,000 for the new hospital site, designed by Boston architect Bertrand E. Taylor in the Spanish Mission style. The hospital was enlarged in 1926 with the Valinda Beale Watts Pavilion, designed by the local architectural firm of Atwood and Nash. [3] [5]
By the early 1960s, Watts had begun admitting black patients on a limited basis, constrained by its limited size. A 1966 referendum to fund a new, larger and integrated Watts Hospital was defeated by Durham voters, opposed by both whites and blacks, who feared that the new hospital would cater to whites, while blacks would be treated in the outmoded 1909 facility. [6]
A second referendum, in 1968, which more clearly delineated that Watts and Lincoln hospitals would become extended care facilities when the new Durham County General Hospital opened its doors in 1976. The referendum passed, though Watts was ultimately closed in favor of an enlarged Lincoln Community Health Center. [6]
In September 1980, the first class of high school students moved into the deserted Watts Hospital buildings as the campus began a new life as the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), a boarding school for academically talented students from all over North Carolina. The old Spanish Mission style buildings were restored, while new, architecturally harmonious buildings were added. In one of the Durham's best examples of adaptive reuse, the old Watts Hospital, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, [1] now thrives as NCSSM and serves to anchor the Watts-Hillandale Historic District which was designated a National Historic Neighborhood District in 1998. [7]
By 1922, Watts Hospital's quality of care and its philanthropic mission to provide healthcare to the working poor was so well-regarded that James B. Duke and North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison proposed the creation of the state's first four-year medical college, Duke University, to educate students in conjunction with clinical services provided at Watts Hospital. [8]
In addition to founding the clinical hospital, George Watts also established the Watts Hospital Training School for Nurses at the hospital, in 1895. The school was renamed the Watts School of Nursing (Watts SON) in 1976. Its first graduate, Ethel Clay, received her nursing degree in 1897. [9]
Now part of the Duke University Health System, Watts SON has been housed at Durham Regional Hospital since 1976.
Watts School of Nursing is now located on Croasdaile Drive in Durham, NC.
North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is a two-year, public residential high school with two physical campuses located in Durham, North Carolina, and Morganton, North Carolina, that focuses on the intensive study of science, mathematics and technology. It accepts rising juniors from across North Carolina and enrolls them through senior year. Although NCSSM is a public school, enrollment is extremely selective, and applicants undergo a competitive review process for admission. NCSSM is a founding member of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS) and a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system.
Duke Regional Hospital (DRH), located in northern Durham, North Carolina is a general-services hospital that has been part of the Duke University Health System since 1998. The hospital has 388 beds and over 500 physicians on the medical staff, and has a certified Level II Intensive Care Nursery.
The Duke University Health System combines the Duke University School of Medicine, the Duke University School of Nursing, the Duke Clinic, and the member hospitals into a system of research, clinical care, and education.
The South Carolina State Hospital was a publicly funded state-run psychiatric hospital in Columbia, South Carolina. Founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, it was one of the first public mental hospitals established in the United States. The Mills Building, its first building, was designed by early American architect Robert Mills, and is a National Historic Landmark. The hospital had more than 1,000 patients in 1900, but with the transition of mental health facilities to community settings, it closed in the late 1990s. While buildings on the campus were temporarily used for inpatient services into the early 2000s, they were not part of the State Hospital, but other inpatient facilities of the agency. Several buildings on its campus housed offices and storage facilities of the state's Department of Mental Health until approximately 2014. In October 2014, the Department sold the first parcels of the property into private ownership and received the first sale proceeds. The William S. Hall Psychiatric Institute remained on the campus until 2015, when it moved to a new facility on Department's Northeast Columbia Campus. As of January 2021, 100% of the South Carolina State Hospital property had been transferred to private ownership. Proceeds from the sale of the Bull Street property must be used to benefit patients of the Agency. As of August 2020, the SC Mental Health Commission had authorized the expenditure of $10 million of the proceeds, $6.5 million, for the development of additional community housing for patients.
Lincoln Community Health Center (LCHC) is an outpatient primary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina that replaced Lincoln Hospital in 1968. LCHC offers a wide range of health services including adult medicine, pediatrics, dental, social work/mental health services, family care nursing and outreach into the home. Prenatal and family planning services are available at the Center in cooperation with the Durham County Health Department.
Duke University Hospital is a 1062 -bed acute care facility and an academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health System, a network of physicians and hospitals serving Durham County and Wake County, North Carolina, and surrounding areas, as well as one of three Level I referral centers for the Research Triangle of North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Duke University School of Medicine.
Medical centers in the United States are conglomerations of health care facilities including hospitals and research facilities that also either include or are closely affiliated with a medical school.
John Sprunt Hill was a North Carolina lawyer, banker and philanthropist who played a fundamental role in the civic and social development of Durham, North Carolina, the expansion of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the development of rural credit unions in North Carolina during the first half of the 20th century.
George Watts Hill was an American banker, hospital administrator and philanthropist who played a key role in the socioeconomic development of Durham, North Carolina, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Park. He was also instrumental in health care reform, the desegregation of Durham, the education of children with learning disabilities, and the removal of the Speaker Ban Law.
George Washington Watts was an American manufacturer, financier and philanthropist. Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company. He also founded Watts Hospital, which was the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and prompted the establishment of Duke University.
Bertrand E. Taylor was an American architect who worked in Massachusetts. He designed the Watts Hospital (1895) and later hospital buildings at the same site.
Henry Hubbard Kendall was an American architect from Boston, Massachusetts. He wrote a letter to the U.S. Civil Service commission critiquing the low pay for government architects. Kendall was the senior partner in the firm Kendall, Taylor & Company. Several of his or the firm's works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, for their architectural merit.
Aaron McDuffie Moore, M.D. was a medical doctor, medical director, and officer at a bank, hospital, pharmacy, university and insurer serving African Americans in North Carolina. He was born in Whiteville, North Carolina. He lived in Durham, North Carolina.
Lincoln Hospital was a medical facility located in Durham, North Carolina founded to serve the African Americans of Durham County and surrounding areas. With original hospital construction financed by the Duke family, Lincoln served as the primary African American hospital in Durham from its opening in 1901 until 1976, when it closed and transferred its inpatient services to Durham County General Hospital.
Trinity Historic District, also called Trinity Park, is a national historic district and residential area located near the East Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The district encompasses 751 contributing buildings in a predominantly residential section of Durham. They were built between the 1890s and 1960 and include notable examples of Queen Anne and Bungalow / American Craftsman style architecture. Located in the district are the separately listed "Faculty Row" cottages: the Bassett House, Cranford-Wannamaker House, Crowell House, and Pegram House. Other notable buildings include the George W. Watts School (1917), Julian S. Carr Junior High School (1922), Durham High School (1923), Durham Alliance Church (1927), Trinity Presbyterian Church (1925), Great A & P Tea Company (1927-1929), Grace Lutheran Church, and the former Greek Orthodox Community Church.
Watts–Hillandale Historic District, also known as Club Acres and Englewood, is a national historic district located at Durham, Durham County, North Carolina. The district encompasses 446 contributing buildings, 2 contributing sites, and 2 contributing structures in a predominantly residential section of Durham. They were built after 1909 and include notable examples of Mission Revival and Colonial Revival style architecture. Located in the district is the separately listed Watts Hospital complex.
St. Agnes Hospital was a private hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Open from 1896 to 1961, it served the city's black residents. The hospital and an associated nursing school were founded after Aaron Burris Hunter and Sarah Hunter, instructors at St. Augustine's College, became concerned about the limited options local black residents had for medical care. Originally operating out of a former home on St, Augustine's campus, the hospital moved to a new four-story stone building in 1909. Largely reliant on philanthropic contributions, the hospital struggled to maintain adequate funding throughout its existence and served a large number of charity patients. Accredited by the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons, dozens of physicians and approximately 500 nurses were trained at the hospital. By the mid-1950s, the hospital was struggling to fund advancements needed to keep up with improving medical care and stricter accreditation standards. The hospital building was condemned in 1955 and the institution closed in April 1961 after Wake County opened a public hospital to treat both black and white patients. The main hospital building fell into ruins, and in 1979 it was declared a local historic landmark by the city of Raleigh.
Walltown is a historically African-American neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. The neighborhood is located between West Durham Historic District and Trinity Historic District, north of Duke University East Campus. Historically, the neighborhood was a working class neighborhood for African-American employees of Duke University and local tobacco and textile mills in Durham. Walltown was named after George Wall, a former enslaved person, who was one of the first people to purchase a lot in the area. Members of the community were active in the civil rights movement and desegregation in Durham. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, Walltown has been undergoing gentrification.
Ethel Clay Price was an American nurse and socialite. She was the first graduate from Watts Hospital Training School for Nurses in Durham, obtaining her nursing degree in 1897. She was married to insurance executive Julian Price and was the mother-in-law of the businessman Joseph M. Bryan. Price lived at Hillside, a large mansion she and her husband had built in Greensboro, North Carolina. A devout Catholic, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Greensboro was built as a memorial to her. A scholarship at the Watts Nursing School and a scholarship at Notre Dame of Maryland University are named after her.