Before Fort Worth’s Medical District, this ‘sanitarium’ was built to serve the wealthy

Today the Southside Medical District consists of four major hospital complexes plus numerous clinics and rehab facilities, a multi-billion-dollar operation that helps drive the Fort Worth economy while serving the city’s ever-growing population. It has not always been that way.

In 1901, Fort Worth’s institutional medical needs were handled by St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital, All Saints Episcopal Hospital, and the training hospital of Fort Worth Medical School (part of Fort Worth University). All three institutions ostensibly served the general public, making part of their mission treating the poor and indigent.

But medical care, then as now, operated on different levels for the poor versus the privileged. Fort Worth’s Protestant Sanitarium, which opened that same year, had a more elitist mission. It was a private, for-profit operation that aimed to serve the medical needs of a well-heeled clientele, called a “sanitarium” to distinguish it from a general hospital.

In those days, “sanitarium” was not merely a euphemism for a mental institution; it was the snobbish name for a private hospital, characterized by providing personalized medical care, private rooms, and having doctors and nurses on site 24/7.

The Protestant Sanitarium was built on the southwest corner of Main and Railroad Avenue (Vickery) for $25,000 by its investors, which included Drs. Amos C. Walker and Edgar D. Capps, Winfield Scott, Sam Levy, and John B. Slaughter. It occupied two spacious buildings on a large lot with a sweeping view of downtown. The larger building had 224 feet of frontage with wide porches all around, divided into a “surgical wing” and a “convalescent wing.”

At this time, convalescing in a hospital was a new concept. Historically, people recovered at home with the attending physician making visits. The Protestant Sanitarium’s lucky patients would receive the equivalent of spa treatment. The admission building was separate. The advertising promised “the highest scientific practice of modern medicine, surgery, and gynaecology,” the last-named being one of the most modern fields of medicine, addressing a need formerly filled by midwives and general practitioners.

The doctor-investors included some of Fort Worth’s most respected practitioners, starting with Dr. Walker, a professionally trained surgeon who had come to Fort Worth after more than a quarter-century practicing medicine in Texas. His partner, Dr. Capps, was a “specialist in mental and nervous disorders,” which put the Protestant Sanitarium in competition with the Arlington Heights Sanitarium. Winfield Scott and John Slaughter, cattle barons, and businessman Sam Levy were not doctors, but they were major investors. The incorporated company was capitalized at $50,000.

The Sanitarium’s patients were invited to involve themselves personally in their treatment and in making all medical decisions along with their “counsel” and family. Business was quietly profitable in the early years. Then in May 1903, the Sanitarium’s good name was splashed across the pages of the newspaper. Oran Hoskins who lived with his mother at 901 E. Belknap, claimed to have been hit by a Frisco Railroad train, leaving him insensible. Oran’s mother filed a lawsuit against the railroad, and Oran was admitted to the Sanitarium for observation. Three weeks later, Dr. Walker scheduled exploratory brain surgery. Almost literally at the door to the operating room, Oran experienced a miraculous recovery and confessed to the swindle. He and his mother were arrested and went to jail, and Dr. Walker told reporters he had suspected “shamming” all along.

The Protestant Sanitarium got a different kind of publicity in April 1909 as a result of the disastrous South Side Fire that destroyed 20 square blocks of businesses, churches, and private residences, causing losses equivalent to $44 million today. The most destructive fire in Fort Worth history took out the Protestant Sanitarium, costing Dr. Walker $53,000 personally on top of the estimated $25,000 in damage to the business.

The Protestant Sanitarium never rebuilt. It was replaced by other hospitals, public and private. The Southside Medical District, after almost going up in flames, rose from the ashes like a phoenix. Drs. Walker, Capps, and the rest of the owner-physicians, continued to practice in Fort Worth for several years before retiring. Dr. Walker is buried in Oakwood Cemetery. The various other investors found other opportunities to invest their money.

Author-historian Richard Selcer is a Fort Worth native and proud graduate of Paschal High and TCU.

This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 7:00 AM.