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From 1899 to 1922 employees of the Frisco railway had a hospital
in Springfield, called the Frisco Hospital. From 1899 until 1904
the Sisters of Charity of the Holy Cross directed the hospital.
In 1905 the Sisters of Mercy from Fort Scott, Kansas took charge.
These sisters were called to operate another hospital in Hutchison,
Kansas, in 1922, and so the hospital "temporarily" closed and Frisco
employees were referred to St.
John's Hospital for treatment. The Frisco Hospital actually
operated out of the St. John's Annex for a while.
At the time of the hospital's closure in 1922 no one would have
believed this was the end of the Frisco Hospital. Newspaper articles
from the time talked of razing the building in two to three
weeks and tell of a modern 175-bed hospital already designed and
waiting to be built. The rumors of a new Frisco Hospital continued
for many years. Well into the 1940s newspaper articles talked of
the eminent building of a new, smaller (120 bed) hospital. No new
hospital was ever built.
The postcard is a photograph apparently taken before March 29, 1913,
as that is the date it is postmarked. The building was a three-story
brick structure at the corner of Broadway Avenue and Atlantic Street.
It was financed with 35 cent or 50 cent (depending on income) monthly
fees paid by employees. The building was demolished in 1924.
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