Razed hospital played significant role in city's pastEditor's note: Charleston Memorial Hospital ER director James Tolley, M.D., won The Post and Courier's monthly Golden Pen award for February. In his letter to the editor, “Razed hospital played significant role,” Tolley calls attention to the history of the McClennan-Banks Memorial Hospital.During the past six weeks, the building at 25 Courtenay Drive, in the medical district of downtown Charleston was demolished, and it appears that few people noticed. Some may ask why anyone should notice this building, which opened in June 1959 and was of little architectural significance. Few outside the medical community even knew what this building was, other than an abandoned relic of days gone by, located on valuable land. This building, last utilized to house the Charleston County Substance Abuse Center (DETOX), was the descendant of The Hospital and Training School for Nurses. Other names included, “The Cannon Street Hospital “and the more telling, “Colored Hospital.” The Hospital and Training School for Nurses was established 1897 and housed in buildings located at 135 Cannon St. The main building was nearly 100 years old at that time and initially in very poor repair. Dr. Alonzo C. McClennan and several other “colored physicians” founded the hospital with the purpose of providing practical hands-on training after they were turned away from the Charleston City Hospital and the Old Folk Home. Dr. McClennan served on the faculty and as director of the facility until his death in October of 1912. Mrs. Anna DeCosta Banks, R.N., served as head nurse for 32 years. This 24-bed hospital, the only facility of its kind open to patients and medical providers of all races, was replaced by the 31-bed McClennan Banks Memorial Hospital on June 1, 1959, under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Carr McFall. It served as a full-service hospital, continuing the mission and policies of the former until Dec. 31, 1976. During some of this time, it served as a training ground for many (predominantly white) medical students, residents, and fellows to obtain hands-on experience. With time and better racial relations, the need for a segregated hospital no longer existed. While there will probably be no “Ghost Painting” made of this building as there have been for so many of our long vanished historical sites, many members of the Charleston community, both black and white, patients, their families, and health care providers have lasting memories of this facility. For me, it was the hospitalization of my father after he was struck by a vehicle and of my sister when she became ill. Another most poignant memory was being permitted to observe Drs. Turner and Katherine McCottrey perform a surgical procedure that furthered my conviction to enter the field of medicine. It is reassuring that the new hospital to be built on this site by MUSC and the new facility being built by Roper-St. Francis will be open to patients and medical professions of all races. James H. Tolley, M.D.
Friday, March 19, 2004
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