The Brewster Hospital building is a historic U.S.

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

in the LaVilla neighborhood of

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. It was located at 915 West Monroe Street. On May 13, 1976, the building was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. In 2005, it was moved across the street to 843 West Monroe Street.

History

Brewster Hospital was the first Black hospital in Jacksonville. It served

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

s in Jacksonville from 1901 to 1966. It was founded in 1901 as the George A. Brewster Hospital and School of Nurse Training, because there was no place for Black people to go to for treatment after the disastrous Great Fire of 1901. Its sponsor was the Women's Division of the Methodist Board of Missions. (As in other Southern cities, white hospitals did not treat Black residents before the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

.) The hospital began at the West Monroe building, later expanding to East Jacksonville and Springfield.

Abbie Sweetwine Abbie Sweetwine (28 May 1921 – 7 May 2009) was an American nurse remembered for her work during the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash. In a headline at the time, the '' Daily Mirror'' described her as "The Angel of Platform 6". Early life and ...

, the military nurse dubbed ''"The Angel of Platform 6"'' for her work during the British Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, under took her initial training as a nurse at Brewster Hospital. The hospital closed in 1966 because, like Florida A&M Hospital, the forced integration of white hospitals meant it lost its funding. Its Springfield building was gutted and rebuilt as Methodist Hospital, opening in 1967. The building that replaced it became Methodist Medical Center in 1993, and in 1999 merged with University Medical Center to become the Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, an affiliate of the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and

Shands HealthCare University of Florida Health (UF Health) is a medical network associated with the University of Florida. It includes two academic hospitals – UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville and UF Health Jacksonville – and several other hospitals ...

. The original Brewster Hospital building was first constructed in 1885 as a private residence. It was purchased for use as a hospital in 1901 and remained occupied until the hospital's demise in 1966. In the mid-2000s, the city of Jacksonville relocated the building to a parcel of land down the street and spent $1.2 million rehabilitating it for a new use. As of 2020, North Florida Land Trust is its primary tenant.

References

External links

Duval County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places
* at * at Hospital buildings completed in 1901 History of Jacksonville, Florida Hospitals in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Jacksonville, Florida Hospital buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Defunct hospitals in Florida Historically black hospitals in the United States Hospitals established in 1901 Hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida African-American history in Jacksonville, Florida {{Florida-Hospital-stub