Women’s History Month a good time to honor founders of St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville

At 314 Palmetto St. in Downtown Jacksonville sits the office and archive building for the Jacksonville History Center. Staff, interns and volunteers there have the pleasure of working in the first building designed in Florida to serve as a modern hospital. St. Luke’s Hospital opened in 1878, but the organization has existed since 1873 when three women saw a need for some generosity in their city.

In 1872, Susan Hartridge, Anna Doggett and Myra Mitchell wanted to find a way to help sick travelers in Jacksonville. At the time, there were no hospitals in Duval County available to travelers, which led to the unnecessary deaths of multiple visitors to the city.

To prevent more travelers from dying, the three women formed the Relief Association of Jacksonville, which helped sick travelers be placed where they could receive help. After just a year, the association became so popular these women decided it was time they opened their own hospital.

Thus came St. Luke’s Hospital. These women made this happen through their own charitable donations and plenty of fundraising by holding fairs and other events. Eventually in 1873 they had the funds to rent a small two-room building.

The St. Luke's Hospital Association was officially formed that year. It was run by a board of two presidents, five vice presidents, a secretary and a treasurer. One of the vice presidents elected was Martha Reed Mitchell. She was well-known around Jacksonville as a woman of great prominence, as a founding member of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, prior to moving to Jacksonville in 1866.

Mitchell was passionate about charity and would serve as the president of St. Luke’s Hospital Association for 25 years.

The hospital gained popularity and support from all around Jacksonville, and within their first operational year they found the need to expand, so they bought a plot of land on the corner of Market and Caroline streets. F. Leede was hired as the contractor for the new building, but the construction was halted due to insufficient funds.

Still wanting to expand, the St. Luke’s Hospital Association held annual winter fairs, which raised thousands of dollars. Finally in 1875 they broke ground on their new hospital.

It was to be a completely modern facility with all the latest amenities. However, the nearly completed building caught fire and was destroyed in 1876. The association decided to sell the land and buy a new plot on Palmetto Street.

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With the $6,000 received from insurance and additional funding, they were able to build what is now known as Old St. Luke’s Hospital, completed in 1878. That building would house the hospital until 1914 when it moved to Springfield.

In 1885 the St. Luke’s nursing program was established, the first modern nursing school in Florida. In 1888 the Jacksonville Board of Health took over the hospital operations, but this did not slow the nursing program’s growth. St. Luke’s Hospital became a place where women could begin their careers in the medical field, educating generations of nurses in Jacksonville until 1965.

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One graduate, Carolyn Drake, acted as education director for the program from 1957 to 1959. Drake eventually came out of retirement to help run the new nursing program at Florida Junior College — now Florida State College at Jacksonville — in 1967. The program retained a vibrant alumni association; in 1981 the lifetime member count was 111.

Unfortunately, as the nursing program ended, so did the alumni association. In 1987 the hospital was taken over by Mayo Clinic but retained the name St. Luke’s. Then in 2005 it became a part of the St. Vincent’s health care family in partnership with Mayo Clinic. Eventually in 2008 St. Vincent’s became the sole operations controller and the hospital became Ascension St. Vincent’s Medical Center.

As the hospital has changed, so has the Old St. Luke’s building. In 2012 the Jacksonville Historical Society (now Jacksonville History Center) acquired the building and began restorations to house its offices and archives. A building that was once a place of safekeeping for those who were sick and suffering is now a place of safekeeping for historical documents, objects and publications.

Cosette Steeves is the assistant archivist for the Jacksonville History Center.

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Remembering three Jacksonville women who founded St. Luke's Hospital