In 1898, two nuns left northwestern Missouri and traveled to Oklahoma Territory with the hope of collecting money for a new hospital.
Their plan was to open it in Missouri, but they soon realized they would only get local support and funds if a care center was built in the territory. Their Mother Superior embraced the idea, and in 1898 land was purchased along with two small houses at 219 NW 4th near downtown Oklahoma City. That land would later become the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
A lease was signed on July 18 and doors opened on Aug. 1. The nuns lived in one house, with the other building serving as the hospital. Initially it was operated by four nuns and had 12 beds. It was the start of St. Anthony Hospital, Oklahoma’s first and oldest hospital. A few days after opening, the nuns’ first patient, a 27-year-old Jewish man from Cincinnati, arrived seeking care.
That first winter was brutal. Coal stoves in the rooms provided warmth, but made the air heavy and unsuitable for patients and nurses. Need for a larger and more suitable space quickly became apparent.
From an $800 donation, $600 was used to purchase land in the hospital’s current location; the property was deeded to the sisters and the additional $200 went into the building fund. A two-story brick care center, with 25 beds and a basement, was dedicated on Nov. 23, 1899. It faced 9th Street between Lee and Dewey. A newspaper story said the hospital, built by the Sisters of St. Francis, cost $25,000 to complete.
Early on, sisters performed all duties, from cleaning and cooking to nursing. On-site living accommodations weren’t available, so most employees found housing nearby. Access to the hospital became easier when roads were paved in 1900 and 1901; soon the streetcar line ran to 13th and Walker. It wasn’t until 1904, however, that running water became available. Until then, workers had to haul water from a school four blocks away.
The hospital experienced many firsts. Telephones were installed in 1900, followed soon by electricity and natural gas. In 1908, X-ray equipment was in place, and the St. Anthony School of Nursing was established with the first class of three students graduating in 1911, the same year the hospital purchased the first ambulance in Oklahoma City.
In 1922 Sister Beatrice Merrigan became the first certified X-ray technician in the U.S. Other firsts include a radioactive isotope lab in 1965; a dialysis unit in 1972; an alcohol treatment unit in its mental health center in 1975; and the city’s first adolescent care psychiatric unit for ages 12 to 16. The hospital also is a double-certified stroke center and has a level II neonatal intensive care unit.
Today’s much larger facility, still in its original location with the main entrance at 1000 N. Lee Ave., has spread upward and outward and now has 773 beds.
St. Anthony Hospital in Midtown is operated by SSM Health Care of Oklahoma, a hospital group that includes outpatient facilities, clinics and five St. Anthony Healthplex campuses.
And it all started in two small houses more than 125 years ago.
