Newburn Memorial Hospital
The magnificent institution that today [1972] is Newburn Memorial Hospital has to be labeled a personal project of the late Dr. C. L. Newburn. It was he, who through good times and bad, tenaciously provided facilities for caring for the sick.
The hospital had its inception when in 1917, Dr. Newburn came to Jacksonville from Barry, Texas, and purchased the Dr. Longmire residence on South Bonner Street. It was remodeled with living quarters on the first floor and the hospital on the second floor. While only thirteen beds were provided, the facility was the only one in Jacksonville at that time.
In the years that followed, Dr. Newburn went through the influenza epidemic of World War I years, saw his daughter Billybob born in 1919 and his son, C. L., Jr., in 1921, and had completed his surgery residency at Tulane in New Orleans. Things looked bright, but then tragedy struck.
On a cold, rainy night in 1928, his little hospital burned to the ground. No one was injured, but it looked as though Dr. Newburn's dream might be shattered. Undaunted, he arranged for temporary living and hospital quarters at the home of the late Rev. John Newburn on Kickapoo Street. Rev. Newburn had died two years previously, but his widow, Lula, provided Dr. Newburn with a place for his patients.
A new fifteen-bed hospital was completed in 1929 on the site of the one which had been destroyed, and for that day it was modern in every respect. Living quarters were provided on the ground floor, along with offices, laboratory and x-ray rooms. On the second floor were private rooms, wards and a nursery.
It was in 1937 that Dr. Newburn married Jewell Massey, a hospital employee for nine years, and together they planned and promoted continual modernization and development of the hospital facility.
After an illness of about three years duration, Dr. Newburn died on August 3, 1962. His son, C. L. Newburn, Jr., already had joined him in administration of the hospital, however, and by 1964 a new wing was completed, adding nineteen new rooms and other facilities.
Known for all the earlier years as Newburn Sanitarium, the name, organization and operation were changed January 1, 1962, when the institution became Newburn Memorial Hospital, with a Board of Directors, and a public rather than private status. Members of the current board are Mrs. Jewell Walls, president, C. L. Newburn, Jr., secretary, Mrs. Richmond Dublin, Dr. C. H. Stripling, Dr. V. W. Pryor, Mrs. Cleo Tilley, Rev. Curtis Carroll, M. W. Gentry and Hulon B. Brown.
With C. L. Newburn, Jr., serving as administrator, assisted by his son, C. L., III, who had returned from service in the military in Vietnam, an even more ambitious expansion program was formulated and it came to fruition on October 31, 1971, when yet another wing was opened. This new portion of the hospital, costing over $500,000, provided 37 more patient rooms, including a four-room cardiac care unit, three emergency treatment rooms, new pharmacy, two nurse stations. This 68-bed facility is ultra-modern.
With its new status as a memorial hospital, C. L. Newburn, Jr., administrator, says public contributions now are being accepted as memorials.
Five doctors are on the staff of the hospital, including Dr. C. H. Stripling,
Dr. V. W. Pryor, Dr. Fernando Riquelme, Dr. Edgar McPeak and Dr. J. P.
McClelland.
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Newburn Sanitarium, 1929, replaced the original building destroyed by fire in 1928. |
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Major addition to Newburn Memorial Hospital was completed in 1964 as shown here. |
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Latest addition, shown here, to Newburn Memorial was completed and occupied in October, 1971. |
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C. L. Newburn, Jr., administrator of Newburn Memorial Hospital, right, with son and associate, C. L., III, beside picture of his late father, Dr. C. L. Newburn, founder of the hospital. |
Compiled by Greg Smith. If you have any materials you'd like to contribute, please email me.