Riverside General Hospital History The Houston Negro Hospital
In 1918, in answer to an appeal for assistance from several black doctors,(R.O. Roett, Charles Jackson, B.J. Covington, Henry E. Lee and F. F. Stone) Joseph S. Cullinan, a Houston philanthropist, established a fund to erect a fifty-bed hospital. Maurice J. Sullivan was hired as an architect. Sullivan was commissioned to design the new hospital, as well as to develop a master plan for the site. Construction
began in 1925.
The Houston Negro Hospital holds a particularly significant place in the history of both the black community and medical community in Houston and Texas. The Hospital was the first nonprofit hospital for black patients in Houston, and it provided a place for well trained Black physicians to work, who were not allowed to admit patients to the "Black Wards" of Houston's other hospitals.
The Houston Negro Hospital Nursing School, which was established soon after the Hospital was built, was the first such educational institution for the training of Black nurses in the City of Houston. The efforts of several prominent Houstonians, both Black and White, made possible the construction of both the Hospital and the Nursing School. The idea for a Hospital was developed and supported by members of the Black community, notably I. M. Terrell, the Hospital's first Administrator and the few but growing number of Black physicians. The City of Houston, as recommended by the Mayor, donated the land on which the Hospital was built. The furnishing were secured from a local army facility.
A wealthy Texas oilman, J. S. Cullinan, donated the $80,000.00 to build the Hospital. The dedication of the Houston Negro Hospital was held on June 19, 1926, a major holiday known as Juneteenth, commemorating the day Emancipation was put into effect in Texas. Although construction was not completed, the dedication went on as planned. During the ceremony, the Hospital's benefactor, J. S. Cullinan, was revealed to the public for the first time. A bronze tablet cast by The Tiffany Company was unveiled. The plaque stated that the building was erected "in memory of Lieutenant John Halm Cullinan", Cullinan's son, who died at the age of 36 after serving in France during World War I. The Hospital was "dedicated to the American Negro to promote self-help, to insure good citizenship and for the relief of suffering, sickness and disease among them." The Hospital was officially opened in July 1927.
At the onset, the entire staff was Black, and only Black Physicians practiced at the Houston Negro Hospital. Two of the most prominent and most respected early doctors were Benjamin C. Covington and Rupert O. Roett, who graduated from Meharry Medical School. The first Board of Directors was made up of local black businessmen, supported by an Advisory Council of prominent white Houstonians.
