On 22 February 1914, the Wilmington Morning Star published this detailed account of the establishment of the Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Hospital, which eventually became Mercy Hospital. Originally envisioned with a farm, countryside cottages, and a nurses’ home, only the administrative building was built. Nonetheless, Dr. Frank S. Hargrave‘s vision was “remarkable” indeed, and the hospital served the community for 50 years. (I was born there, in fact, just before it closed.)
[Sidenote: Hospital co-founder J.D. Reid was principal of the Colored Graded School and advisory board member Charles L. Coon was school superintendent. That Samuel H. Vick broke with them just four years later to side with teachers and parents in the 1918 school boycott is all the more astonishing.]
Wow, wow, wow. So amazing. I am so happy to read about the vision of holistic healthcare contained in the original plan for the hospital and home—such a good reminder of how long Black people have been doing this work of caring for one another and creating institutions in the absence of support from the state. Also wowza that school boycott. Fire. Thank you!
also….can you explain what “progressive” means in this context? Something like “conforming to societal notions of progress”?
What an amazing account and accomplishment! It must have been extremely uplifting for the community, and I am thrilled and proud to read it all of these years later. Was the Wilmington Morning Star a black-owned and distributed newspaper? The article is written so positively, especially for the times.
Nope! (And it now carries the label of oldest daily in continuous publication in NC.)