PLATTE CO. HOSPITALS NEGenWeb Project
PLATTE CO. NEBRASKA HOSPITALS
Past and Present


ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL

The Columbus Journal, July 9, 1902
The new hospital building on east Fifteenth is nearing completion and will make a splendid addition to the city. The brick and stone structure has three full stories, a high basement and an attic, will contain forty rooms for the use of patients besides operating room, parlors, dining rooms, etc. The old hospital accommodated 150 patients including the dormitories. The new building will cost $50,000 aside from the furnishing. The wood work, plumbing and electric lights are now receiving the finishing touches and the magnificent structure will probably be ready for occupancy the latter part of August. There will be 310 electric lights controlled by one switchboard, electric bells for each room for the accommodation of patients, telephones on each floor, dumb waiters and many other conveniences. The operating rooms have been built on strict sanitary plans with tile floors, rounded corners in the wall, ventilators, sky light, etc. The chapel, which is complete but for the seating, occupies the third and fourth stories of the building. The walls are beautifully frescoed in brown and red shades with trimmings in gold leaf. A small gallery for the choir is at the rear of the room. The altar pieces are in place, but not uncovered. There is one large kitchen with a modern range, with dumb waiters and telephones connected with each floor. There is also a separate kitchen and oven for bread baking. One of the valuable pieces of furniture in the house will be a large refrigerator, which is now on its way from Indiana. Charles Wurdeman has had the superintending of the building, the Dussells had the contract of all the plumbing and heating, Jacob Glur has the cement work and Echols & Dietrichs oiling the wood and painting. Besides these there are many other workmen from the city. The Sisters of the hospital deserve all credit for the great undertaking they have assumed and for the splendid reputation they have established for the hospital all over this section of the west. When the new building is completed there will not be a better equipped hospital in the state both as to nurses and sanitary conditions. In a few months several more nurses will be added to the list of helpers.

The Columbus Telegram, November 4, 1921, page 6

NEW EVANS HOSPITAL TO BE OPENED NOVEMBER 10 and 11 REPRESENTS INVESTMENT OF $235,000

    The new Evans hospital which has been under construction the past two years will be formally opened to the public next Thursday and Friday, November 10 and 11, with a reception between the hours of 2 and 10 p.m. There will be no formal program. The public is simply invited to visit the building and inspect the equipment. The hospital will be open for business next Friday.
    Representing, as it does, an investment of $235,000 for building, equipment and grounds, the institution is one of the chief community improvements erected in Columbus in recent years. The building cost approximately $150,000; the equipment, $50,000; the stucco bungalow for resident nurses, $5,000, and the remainder of the investment is represented in the value of the grounds which constitute a full city block.
    Located at the northwest edge of the residence district of the city, away from the noise of traffic, yet convenient of access, it is ideally situated for an institution of that kind.
    The building is as nearly fire-proof as possible, the only wood work being the door and window facings. It is of concrete construction throughout, with exterior walls of oak bark brick. Interior walls are finished in white.
    Accommodations are provided for more than sixty patients and seven resident nurses. With exception of one room where several patients may be taken care of, the rooms are arranged for individual service and are luxuriously furnished. Every room has a wide window, special attention having been given to the admission of sunlight to all rooms, closets, lavatories and operating departments.
    Among the special features often lacking in hospitals are sun porches for convalescents, a thoroughly equipped maternity department; complete x-ray and violet ray outfits, with an immense stereopticon which will reveal the most minute tracing of a vein brought out by the x-ray pictures; an isolation ward, separate from the main building but connected with it by a covered passage, in which contagious diseases may be treated in seclusion and a dental department where a specialty will be made of oral surgery.
    Lighting and heating systems are of the most approved types. There is a refrigerating plant, an electric laundry, electric elevator and a perfectly appointed diet kitchen.
    A departure from the ordinary is the fact that no sound of a bell will be heard within the building. All signals will be given with electric light bulbs. A patient lying in bed will call fro a nurse by pressing a button which will light a lamp in his own room, another out in the hall and still another in the office of the superintendent. None of these lights can be extinguished form any other place in the building except the room of the patient, so the lights will constantly announce that a nurse is needed until one has entered that particular room and given attention to the patient.
    The old fashioned ward is conspicuous by its absence. The “hospital atmosphere” is eliminated to a large extent and special effort is made to give the patient bright, cheerful surroundings.
    A school for nurses will be opened in connection with the hospital in the near future, under director of Miss Christine Hendrie, superintendent of nurses, and with members of the staff as instructors.
    The hospital will be non-sectarian, and will be opened to all regularly licensed physicians and surgeons.
    Officers of the hospital company are President and chief executive, Dr. C. D. Evans, sr.; secretary-treasurer, Dr. J. North Evans; directors, the officers and Dr. C. D. Evans, jr., E. W. North and C. N. McElfresh.


Lutheran Hospital; picture taken March 19, 1941 - submitted by Charles Gruenig
Return to Platte Co. Home Page

Platte County NEGenWeb Project Page
This is a free site. © 2010 slb. This page may not be copied or distributed or accessed for profit without the written permission of the copyright holder or the owner of this site. Please notify the site owner if you have come to this site as a result of a paid subscription to another site.