Dignity Health St. Mary’s Hospital Celebrates 100 Years

In the summer of 2023, Dignity Health St. Mary’s Medical Center will officially have been operating in the city of Long Beach for 100 years.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram reported the following on Aug. 13, 1923:

Sisters of Charity who will have charge of the various departments at the St. Mary’s Long Beach hospital, formerly the Long Beach hospital, have arrive here from Texas and assumed their duties at the Tenth street institution.

Management of the hospital is under the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Control of the Institutions was taken over August 1 by Mother Placidus, superior general of the order, and Sister Michael, superior of the Shreveport Memorial hospital at Shreveport, La.

Sisters who arrived from Texas come from the St. Joseph’s Infirmary, Houston; St. Mary’s Infirmary, Galveston, and Hotel Dieu, Beaumont, all hospitals with Class A ratings from the American College ofSurgeons. They are: Sister Mary Augustin, Sister Mary Elizabeth and Sister Mary Albert, Sister Mary Eugene, Sister Mary Chrysostom and Sister Mary Victorine.

From its earliest days, public health was a part of the city of Long Beach’s government structure and community, starting with the Long Beach Public Health Board that was established in the 1890s, headed by a retired Civil War surgeon, Dr. William Cuthbert.

As the city grew, physicians complained that their patients had to be transported via carriage to the Los Angeles County hospital over 25 miles away. A group of physicians and local businessmen pooled their money to form the Long Beach Hospital Association in 1903 in response to the need. And shortly afterward, purchased the land at 10th Street and Linden Avenue in order to build The Long Beach municipal hospital. The association hired the architectural firm, Starbuck and Curth, to design the building.

Not long after it was built, in 1907, the association sold the hospital to W Ray Simpson (the business manager for the Glendale Sanitarium), and Battle Creek Sanitarium Company of Battle Creek, Michigan was hired to take over operations and ran the hospital as a sanitarium — a specialized hospital for the treatment of diseases like tuberculosis. Simpson then sold the hospital to Dr. T.O. Boyd and his partners, with Boyd the principal shareholder and chief medical officer of the hospital in 1921. He continued to run the hospital as a sanitarium until 1923 when the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word from Galveston, Texas, purchased the hospital for $165,000.

Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word from Galveston, Texas, came to the negotiating table with a stellar reputation of running hospitals throughout the southern United States and Mexico at the time.

The Catholic Order’s strength as an operations manager of health care facilities in Southern California shone in 1933 when an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook Long Beach, destroyed the hospital, convent, and chapel. Knowing of its vital importance to the community, the Sisters rebuilt the hospital with help from William Reid, the chairman of Hancock Oil.

The new hospital opened in 1937 and expanded to include many of the services that exist today. In 1949, the addition of the North Wing, more than doubled hospital capacity from 100 beds to a 253-bed capacity. Then in 1974, the Bauer Tower opened with all private patient rooms, a larger emergency department, a new intensive care unit and heart care unit, and maternal child health services.

In 1986, the Sisters opened the CARE Center, the nation’s first managed care network for persons living with HIV and AIDS. The hospital continues to grow with a full continuum of
care that meets the preventive, curative, supportive and rehabilitative needs of the city’s diverse population.

Today, St. Mary remains a world class medical center at the forefront of healthcare advancements, from pioneering medical breakthroughs to implementing cutting-edge technologies. It is now a 360-bed nonprofit hospital offering a full-continuum of acute hospital care services, including a Level II Trauma program, Surgical Weight Loss program and robotic surgery.

“As our beloved hospital prepares to celebrate 100 years of service, I find myself reflecting on the strength and courage of our founding Sisters,” said Carolyn Caldwell, President, and Chief Executive Officer. “Their mission of healing has carried this hospital well into today’s reality, empowering it to remain a relevant and vital part of Greater Long Beach.” To celebrate the centennial anniversary, St. Mary will be hosting several events throughout the year. These will provide opportunities for staff, patients, and community members to come together and celebrate the shared history.

“There is so much to be grateful for at our hospital and we look forward to celebrating our centennial in the coming months,” says Caldwell. “Our hope is that St. Mary’s healing ministry will continue to thrive for another 100 years as it meets the growing health care needs of our community.”