Dallas County Hospital history

The roots of Old Parkland hospital started at the corner of Wood and South Houston street in 1872, when City Council approved a permanent hospital to care for indigent patients near what was then a red-light district in Downtown Dallas.

1874: A new hospital is built on the corner of Columbia and South Lamar streets.

Tennessee native Francis Asbury Brown built this house on his dairy farm in 1880.

Clara Barton and a circle of her acquaintances founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881.

The rapidly growing population and outbreak of several infectious diseases – including smallpox, measles, and malaria – strained the hospital’s resources and space until it was overcrowded by 1887.

Betterton House (1888-89) Address: 705 N Marsalis Ave (Oak Cliff)

The Allen House, built in 1889, is one of the largest and best examples of high-style Queen Anne architecture in Dallas.

The Columbus Langley complex consists of three brick commercial buildings, the oldest of which was built in 1891.

Built in 1892, this structure is thought to be the oldest existing hotel in Dallas and exhibits the original cast iron columns, brick work, storefront windows, and ten-light wood transoms.

By then expenses were the responsibility of both the City and County and funds for a new hospital were finally approved in 1893.

Parkland Hospital | 1894 campus

The original hospital building on Bryan Street, part of St Paul’s Sanitarium, opened its doors on June 15, 1898, providing 110 beds to the Dallas community.

Later, The St Paul School of Nursing was established in 1900, offering “hands on” education during its 71 years of operation.

16, 1903, by the state of Texas, began in a 14-room renovated house.

John Leslie Patton, Jr., African-American teacher, principal, and author, was born on May 19, 1905.

In 1906, a free clinic was opened in the hospital’s basement with Sister Brendan O’Beirne in charge.

In 1908, the company began an expansion of the plant and established the privately-owned town, Cement City, for its employees.

A new building later opened at 3315 Junius Street in 1909.

By 1911, Dallas officials had hired City Planner George Kessler to develop a water management and long-range growth plan for the city.

Parkland Hospital | 1913 campus — the first brick hospital built in Texas

The building was completed on February 1, 1914, with a capacity of 100 beds — the first brick hospital built in Texas.

15 year-old Dallas resident Pierpont Balderson died at St Paul’s, and was the city’s first recorded death during the 1918 pandemic.

Baylor Dallas | Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium renamed Baylor Hospital in 1921.Campus photo ca.

Several expansions were made to the site over its 70 year history – including a School of Nursing building erected in 1922, a School of Medical Technology, student dorm rooms, and clinics.

The Medical Arts Building, which opened in 1923 on the corner of St Paul and Pacific streets, primarily contained offices for physicians and dentists.

The Gothic Revival style Eagle Ford School was completed in 1924.

Eagle Ford and Cement City School Districts were annexed into the Dallas Public School system in 1928.

White Rock Pumping Station was shut down in 1929.

The 13-story Cliff Towers Hotel (now the Lake Cliff Tower Condominiums) was completed in 1932.

Baylor Dallas | Baylor Hospital renamed Baylor University Medical Center in 1936.

The March of Dimes organization, (first named the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis) was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, to combat polio.

1939: Doctor Edward Cary and other prominent Dallas citizens organize Southwestern Medical Foundation to promote medical education and research.

July 1, 1943: The medical school holds its first classes at Spence Junior High School.

April 26, 1952: Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the new Parkland hospital at 5201 Harry Hines Blvd.

Parkland Hospital | 1954 campus, Harry Hines, Dallas, Texas

28, 1955: University of Texas regents dedicated the medical school’s first building, for basic sciences, at their location on Harry Hines Blvd.

Students were sent to other schools to reduce crowding and, in 1956, the town of Eagle Ford was annexed into the City of Dallas.

April 2, 1957: Parkland cares for 175 patients in two hours after a tornado ravages Dallas.

1958: Parkland opens a four-story outpatient clinic.

1959: Parkland begins Texas’ first medical service for pediatric infectious diseases.

Jack Ruby apparently envied the success of the Colony Club and opened his own competing bar next door in 1960.

1961: Parkland opens one of the largest civilian burn units in the United States, designating four, four-bed wards as a burn treatment area.

1962: Parkland offers the first seven-day, 24-hour staffed operating room in North Texas.

22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy is brought to Parkland after he is shot by an assassin.

Dallas Regional Medical Center opened in 1964 as Mesquite Memorial Hospital.

The school closed in 1965, and is the only remaining structure associated with the Eagle Ford community.

1966: The surgery and anesthesiology staffs at Parkland and UT Southwestern publish the first medical text on trauma.

1968: Parkland opens the fourth Surgical Trauma Unit in the United States

Later, Patton left his position as principal to become the deputy assistant superintendent of personnel and community relations for the Dallas Independent School District in 1969.

1971: Parkland opens the first Pediatric Burn Unit in North Texas.

1972: Parkland opens a new adult Burn Intensive Care Unit.

1973: Parkland opens the first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Dallas.

January 1974: The old 143-bed hospital at Maple and Oak Lawn avenues is closed, with all services transferred to Parkland.

The first set of four girls and one boy were born at Parkland on July 18, 1975.

1978: A patient care committee is formed to review Medicare and patient service studies and to look at ways to ensure Parkland’s long-term viability.

November 1979: The Board of Managers, under the leadership of Ralph Rogers, asks County Commissioners to call an $80 million bond election to build the north tower and a new outpatient clinic, and to otherwise modernize the hospital’s aging facility.

The campus continued to grow through the 1980's with the purchase of a three-story medical office building.

Dines & Kraft also developed the Lakewood Shopping Center and owned the Lakewood Theater (now a City of Dallas Landmark) until 1983.

1984: Parkland opens the Epilepsy Treatment Center.

Parkland Hospital | Crew inspects the crash of Delta Flight 191, DFW Airport, August 1985

1986: Parkland is the first hospital in North Texas to establish an Arrhythmia Management Center for heart patients.

Old Parkland has been an official City of Dallas Landmark since 1987.

1988: Parkland opens an Acute Stroke Research Unit.

1989: Parkland begins the Community Oriented Primary Care program, with the first of a network of neighborhood clinics constructed in South Oak Cliff.

In 1990, the hospital underwent another ownership and name change when Paracelsus Healthcare Corporation, later known as Clarent Hospital Corporation, renamed the hospital Medical Center of Mesquite.

A full-service Heart Center was established in 1991.

The hospital campus expanded in 1994 with the acquisition of commercial property located to the south of the medical office building.

1996: The name of Parkland Health & Hospital System is approved.

Lake Cliff became a Dallas Landmark district in 1997.

1998: Healthy quintuplets, four boys and one girl, arrive at Parkland on June 8, making them the second set of quints born in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

1999: With a $1 million grant from The Harold Simmons Family Foundation, Parkland Violence Intervention and Prevention Center is established to care for patients whose lives have been affected by violence.

One acre of land north of the Emergency Department was purchased in 2000.

September 11, 2001: Parkland goes on heightened alert in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Several other mergers followed and, in 2005, UT Southwestern merged with what was by then known as St Paul University Hospital.

November 2008: Dallas County voters overwhelmingly voted by 82 percent to support the construction of a new hospital partially funded through bond proceeds.

2009: Parkland’s sale of more than $700 million in Build America Bonds is a regional winner in The Bond Buyer’s 2009 Deal of the Year Awards.

October 2010: Parkland breaks ground on a new $1.27 billion campus.

June 2012: Parkland opens the E. Carlyle Smith, Jr., Health Center in Grand Prairie, its 12th community-based clinic.

2013: The Tower parking garage on the campus of new Parkland hospital is awarded the LEED® Gold Certification from the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, which sets voluntary standards for buildings.

St Paul University Hospital: A Legacy of Caring (UT Southwestern): http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/edumedia/edufiles/about_us/Giving/st-paul-mag-2015.pdf

2016: Parkland receives the 2016 Gage Award by America’s Essential Hospitals for reducing time and cost burdens on patients by teaching them how to self-administer intravenous antimicrobial drugs at home.

The building was purchased in 2017 by the current owner who has meticulously restored the structure.