Dayton to get a new hospital.
From a Facebook post by Tammy Cornett
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| Speers Memorial Hospital | Speers Hospital | Speers faced West |
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Speers Hospital
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| Speers Entrance | Speers Nurse Marcella Summers, 1939 |
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| Thanks to Charlie Schicht for these images. | ||
Where Speers was located.
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| Speers Hospital, circa WWI | Speers Hospital Nurses Home |
| A view of the back of the hospital. |
Elizabeth Speers
Elizabeth Speers will left $200,000 in her will to found Speers Hospital. Very little is known about her, or Charles C. Speers, her husband. She was born in England, he in Pennsylvania. They had earlier lived in Texas, and Cincinnati, and it is believed he made a lot of money in cotton. Her obituary took only a single line; his, five. On the other hand, her funeral was one of the largest in the city's history, and she is reported as being “a lovely Christian character.” |
| Speers closed September 1, 1973. It was the first hospital in NKY to have a computer. Architect was George Vogel, Jr. who died on October 29, 1897. 14 nuns lived on the second floor after the closure, and St. E. operated a clinic on the first floor for a while. Demolition began in May of 1978. A Jack Hicks column in the Enquirer (May 29, 1978) notes that the state regulates the number of hospital beds in the state, and that St. Luke was able to build a long sought addition shortly after Speers closed. He also notes “St. Elizabeth siphoned off the best equipment and soon closed the facility.” | |
| Speers all set to open, 1896. | |
| A few words on the origins of Speers Hospital are here, and here. | In the early 1950's, Speers published a cookbook. Mrs. C. Cornelius' recipe for Rocks is here. |
“St. Elizabeth took over Speers in the early '70's, telling the people of Dayton that they would not lose their hospital. The ink on that paper wasn't even dry before everything of value was moved to the north unit. The south unit was still in the planning and they needed the certificate of need for the number of beds ; about 100, in order to build the South and keep St. Luke from expanding. I was there the day Mr. Gilreath, St.E.'s CEO, told the staff they wouldn't lose their jobs and would not be closing the hospital. Just about everyone over the age of 50 lost their jobs.” Alta Dougherty, in a Facebook post. |
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| Speers Hospital, Dayton | |||
From a Facebook post by Mollie Lawson Ketcham
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| Speers in the 1937 Flood | ||||
Thanks! to Charlie Schicht for a bunch of these Speers Hospital pictures.
