Wheeler Hospital

Last updated

Wheeler Hospital
USA-Gilroy-Wheeler Hospital-1.jpg
Wheeler Hospital
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Wheeler Hospital
Location in Santa Clara County, California
Location650 Fifth Street, Gilroy, California, US
Coordinates 37°0′23″N121°34′38″W / 37.00639°N 121.57722°W / 37.00639; -121.57722 (Wheeler Hospital)
Area3.74 acres (1.51 ha)
Built1929 (1929)
Built byWilliam Radtke
Architect William H. Weeks
Architectural style Mediterranean Revival architecture
Website edenhousing.org/properties/wheeler-manor/
NRHP reference No. 90001442 [1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 13, 1990 [2]

The Wheeler Hospital was a historic hospital constructed in 1929, in Gilroy, California. The hospital was designed by California architect William Henry Weeks and funded by merchant Lin Walker Wheeler. [3] [4] The Wheeler Hospital was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1990. [2] In 1990, the Wheeler Hospital merged with an elder care facility to establish the Wheeler Manor Senior Apartments. [4]

Contents

History

Wheeler Hospital, built in 1929 in a Mediterranean Revival style, 650 Fifth St., Gilroy. Wheeler Hospital, 650 Fifth St., Gilroy, CA 9-23-2012 4-00-59 PM.JPG
Wheeler Hospital, built in 1929 in a Mediterranean Revival style, 650 Fifth St., Gilroy.

Lin Walker Wheeler (1868-1944) provided $40,000 (equivalent to $681,705in 2022) [5] for the construction of a two-story hospital in the Mediterranean Revival style. The hospital opened its doors on July 27, 1929, [6] initially accommodating 29 beds. [7] [8] [4] The construction of the hospital was supervised by builder William Radtke. [5]

During the economic challenges of the Great Depression, city-sponsored development initiatives continued to thrive throughout the latter part of the 1930s, through financial support from influential Gilroy families such as the Wheelers. [5] In 1962, a new 50-bed wing was incorporated into the Wheeler Hospital, situated adjacent to the original 1929 structure and connected by a walkway. Every room and department within this new building featured a wall plaque denoting a memorial contribution from various sources, including individuals, families, businesses, employee groups, and clubs. [9]

During the 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake, the Wheeler Hospital treated six cases of injuries related to the earthquake. [10] In 1990, Wheeler Hospital merged with a nearby elder care facility to establish the Wheeler Manor Senior Apartments. [3] [4] In 1993, Wheeler Manor introduced a new senior housing complex called Building B. In 2018, a renovation project was undertaken to safeguard historical elements of the original hospital, which included the preservation of the original foundation and walls, the clay tile roof, double hung windows, arched entrance, and tile inlay. [11]

Design

The Wheeler Hospital was designed by California architect William H. Weeks (1864-1936) in 1928. It was done in the Mediterranean Revival (Spanish Eclectic) architectural style, which was a hallmark of Weeks' work in Gilroy between 1921 and 1934. The Wheeler Hospital was a 10,144 square feet (942.4 m2) medical facility that occupied a 3.74 acres (1.51 ha) city block, sharing the space with a newer hospital completed in 1962. The Wheeler Hospital was designed in the shape of an "H." In each part of the structure, are low-pitched hipped tile roofs, covered with straight barrel mission-style terracotta tiles, arranged in a regular pattern. It was constructed from reinforced concrete and features, stucco siding, and decorative ceramic tile, and wrought iron elements on the front facade. [3]

The hospital was equipped with 22 patient rooms, each having a toilet, with many also including full baths. Each patient station was furnished with a built-in radio equipped with earphones and a nurses call button, representing an innovative feature and making it the only hospital in the state with this equipment. The central section of the building consists of two stories, with a second-story recessed loggia situated above a double-arched, tiled entryway. It spans five structural units and features a second story above the central section. The building's concrete foundation includes a partial basement used to house the furnace and water heaters. The lower part of the central section encompassed the main entrance, offices, and a stairway to the second floor. The upper floor, spanning approximately 1,300 square feet (120 m2), originally served as the nurses' quarters and featured five bedrooms, two fully tiled baths, and a sitting room with a balcony overlooking the main entrance. The wings of the building are single-story, and they include windows of various sizes, including single, double, and triple configurations with wooden mullions.

The building's exterior walls are primarily stucco, with ceramic tile embellishments located beneath the windows on the north side. The building's exterior remains largely unaltered, except for the plywood coverings added to the windows, doors, and transoms in 1989. Internally, some modifications have been made, including the removal of certain walls. The ground plan's east wing accommodated surgery suites, an emergency room, a dining area, and the primary kitchen. The west wing housed a maternity and nursery rooms, private patient rooms, and a visitors' room. Male and female surgical patients had their rooms on the east and west sides of the central two-story section. Inside, the walls were constructed using lath and plaster, with wainscoting extending up to three feet, except in the maternity and surgery areas, where the walls are entirely covered in ceramic tile. Additionally, all the wood used throughout the building is of high-quality full-dimension redwood or better. [3] [4]

In 1962, a new wing was added to the Wheeler Hospital, adjacent to the original 1929 structure. A roof designed in an awning-style provides shelter for a walkway extending from the rear center of the 1929 building to the 1962 building, which is situated on the south side of the block. [3] [4]

Historical significance

The Wheeler Hospital was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1990. [2] This hospital holds historical significance under California Register of Historical Resources criterion "C" within the field of Agriculture History as the work of local architect, William H. Weeks. The period of significance is in 1929 when the hospital was constructed to support Gilroy's needs for a community hospital. [3] [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marycrest College Historic District</span> Historic district in Iowa, United States

Marycrest College Historic District is located on a bluff overlooking the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The district encompasses the campus of Marycrest College, which was a small, private collegiate institution. The school became Teikyo Marycrest University and finally Marycrest International University after affiliating with a private educational consortium during the 1990s. The school closed in 2002 because of financial shortcomings. The campus has been listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. At the time of its nomination, the historic district consisted of 13 resources, including six contributing buildings and five non-contributing buildings. Two of the buildings were already individually listed on the National Register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone</span> Culinary college in St. Helena, California

The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone is a branch campus of the private culinary college the Culinary Institute of America. The Greystone campus, located on State Route 29/128 in St. Helena, California, offers associate degrees and two certificate programs in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. The CIA at Greystone and the Culinary Institute of America at Copia make up the school's California branch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sintra National Palace</span> Historic house museum in the Lisbon Region of Portugal

The Palace of Sintra, also called Town Palace, is located in the town of Sintra, in the Lisbon District of Portugal. It is a present-day historic house museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California School for the Blind</span> School in the United States

The California School for the Blind is a public educational institution for blind children, K-12, located in Fremont, California. Its campus is located next to the California School for the Deaf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Club (University of Pittsburgh)</span> United States historic place

The University Club is an eight-story building of the University of Pittsburgh designed by Henry Hornbostel and completed in 1923 that is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms Historic District on the school's campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It serves as a faculty club with publicly accessible dining, banquet, and conference facilities, while the upper four floors serve as undergraduate student housing referred to as University Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bathhouse Row</span> United States historic place

Bathhouse Row is a collection of bathhouses, associated buildings, and gardens located at Hot Springs National Park in the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The bathhouses were included in 1832 when the Federal Government took over four parcels of land to preserve 47 natural hot springs, their mineral waters which lack the sulphur odor of most hot springs, and their area of origin on the lower slopes of Hot Springs Mountain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Norconian Club</span> United States historic place

The Lake Norconian Club is a historic former hotel/resort in Norco, California, opened in 1929, sited in a rural community, whose main businesses were poultry, rabbits, and agriculture. It was later known as The Norconian and Clark's Hot Springs. The resort complex is still largely intact, after over 70 years as a naval base and prison. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The listing included seven contributing buildings, five contributing structures, and a contributing site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adamson House</span> Historic house in California, United States

The Adamson House and its associated land, which was known as Vaquero Hill in the 19th century, is a historic house built by Rhoda Adamson and gardens in Malibu, California. The residence and estate is on the coast, within Malibu Lagoon State Beach park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wyoming State Hospital</span> United States historic place

The Wyoming State Hospital, once known as the Wyoming State Insane Asylum, is located in Evanston, Wyoming, United States. The historic district occupies the oldest portion of the grounds and includes fifteen contributing buildings, including the main administrative building, staff and patient dormitories, staff apartments and houses, a cafeteria and other buildings, many of which were designed by Cheyenne, Wyoming architect William Dubois. Established in 1887, the historic buildings span the period 1907-1948. At one point it was common for new hall additions to be named after the counties in Wyoming. The recent addition of Aspen, Cottonwood, and Evergreen halls do not follow this trend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James R. Browning United States Court of Appeals Building</span> United States historic place

The James R. Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building is a historic post office and courthouse building located at San Francisco, California. It is a courthouse for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Completed in 1905 as the U.S. Courthouse and Post Office, it was intended to represent the affluence and increasing importance of the United States as it became a world power. The building survived both the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. B. Thompson Mansion</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The W. B. Thompson Mansion, also known as Alder Manor, is a historic home located on North Broadway in the Greystone section of Yonkers, New York, United States. It is an early 20th-century mansion designed by Carrère and Hastings in the Renaissance Revival architectural style. In 1982, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canterbury Castle (Portland, Oregon)</span> Former house in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Canterbury Castle, also known as Arlington Castle, was a private house located in southwest Portland, Oregon and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed during 1929–1931, the house was designed by Jeter O. Frye to resemble England's Canterbury Castle on the exterior and to evoke the Art Deco styling of Hollywood of the 1920s on the interior. The house included castle features such as a moat, drawbridge and turret and attracted paying tourists immediately following its completion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethan Allen School for Boys</span> United States historic place

Ethan Allen School for Boys was a reform school in Delafield Town, Wisconsin which operated in a former tuberculosis sanitorium from April 1959 until June 2011, when it was abolished and the inmates moved to Lincoln Hills School in Irma. It was operated by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleepy Hollow Country Club</span> Historic country club in Briarcliff Manor, New York, USA

Sleepy Hollow Country Club is a historic country club in Scarborough-on-Hudson in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The club was founded in 1911, and its clubhouse was known as Woodlea, a 140-room Vanderbilt mansion owned by Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard and his wife Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard. It was built in 1892–95 at a cost of $2 million and was designed by the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White; the estate became a contributing property to the Scarborough Historic District in 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hospital Reservation Historic District</span> Historic district in Washington, United States

The Hospital Reservation Historic District is located between Radio Station and Officers Row Historic Districts and east of the Marine Reservation Historic District of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, United States. Established in 1909, it reached its maximum development in 1942. The following structures no longer remain:

  1. ‘"Main Hospital Building"’ (1911,1924): a Neo-Classical, two story with basement brick complex.
  2. "’Recreation building"’ (1920): two story vernacular wood frame structure with basement; to the west was a yard cemetery, which was relocated to the Presidio in San Francisco, California.
  3. "’Navy Female Nurse Corps Quarters"’ (1921) was a two-story wood frame structure.
  4. "’Three Isolation Buildings"’ (1915) were located of the main hospital. Along with other buildings constructed here, all but one isolation building were eventually connected to the main hospital building.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pemberton Memorial Operating Room</span> Medical building

The Pemberton Memorial Operating Room is a National Historic Site of Canada, the first operating room of the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia. It established the Royal Jubilee Hospital as the leading surgical hospital in the province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casa del Rey Apartments</span> United States historic place

The Casa del Rey Apartments is an apartment building located at 111 Oneida Road in Pontiac, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Las Tiendas Building</span> Historic hotel in California, U.S.

The Las Tiendas Building is a two-story reinforced Spanish Eclectic style commercial building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The building is the best and only example of Spanish Eclectic commercial design by the architectural firm of Swartz & Ryland in Carmel. It has been designated as an important commercial building in the city's downtown historic district property survey; and was registered with the California Register of Historical Resources on February 15, 2003. The building has been occupied by the Club since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draper Leidig Building</span> Historic building in California, U.S.

The Draper Leidig Building, also known as the Leidig Building, is a historic mixed-use commercial building in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was designed by Blaine & Olsen and built in 1929, by C. H. Lawrence. It is an example of Spanish Revival style. The structure is recognized as an important commercial building in the city's Downtown Conservation District Historic Property Survey, and was nominated and submitted to the California Register of Historical Resources on May 22, 2002. The building is occupied by four shops, Photography West Gallery, La Renaissance Jewelry, Caraccioli Cellars, and Girl Lee Boutique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Live Oak Creamery</span> Historic Creamery in Santa Clara County, California, United States

The Live Oak Creamery was a historic creamery in Gilroy, California that was established in 1908. The creamery is best known as Gilroy's first butter factory and only insulated structure in the vicinity. During the 1920s and 1930s, the creamery played a role in cheese processing. The Live Oak Creamery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 11, 1982.

References

  1. "National Register Information System  Wheeler Hospital (#90001442)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Wheeler Hospital". Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Wheeler Hospital". United States Department of the Interior National Park Service. August 10, 1990. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Wheeler Hospital, Gilroy, CA". Pacific Coast Architecture Database. 2023. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 "Historic Context Statement and Historic Resources Inventory Update". City of Gilroy. Gilroy, California. July 2020. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  6. "Gilroy to Dedicate Hospital Tonight". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. July 27, 1929. p. 24. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  7. Salewske, Claudia (2003). Gilroy. Arcadia Publishing. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  8. Sprain, Rick (2018). Santa Clara County. Arcadia Publishing. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  9. "Valley Hospital Group Head Describes New Facility Visit". Santa Ynez Valley News. Solvang, California. May 18, 1962. p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  10. "Earthquake leaves a scary aftermath". San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner. August 7, 1979. p. 14. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  11. "Wheeler Manor". City of Gilroy. Gilroy, California. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  12. "Community Hospital Bids Open at Gilroy". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. January 4, 1929. p. 20. Retrieved October 29, 2023.