Finding Aid of the Good Samaritan Hospital, Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.), Minutes and General Records, 1891-1960, ORG.55

[Identification of item], Org.55, Good Samaritan Hospital, Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.), Minutes and General Records, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC, USA.

Included in the Records of the Good Samaritan Hospital, Inc. are minutes, annual reports, an operating expense report, charter amendment, lists of staff, by-laws and amendments, diocesan trustee reports and diocesan records, and miscellaneous. Dates of minutes range from December 1916 to April of 1953, and dates of annual reports are from 1892 to 1911. Other dated records of interest include the certificate of amendment to the charter, 1947; and report of Trustees of Diocese, May 1960.

Arrangement is chronological within each series.

Finding Aid prepared by: Emily S. Jones on 1 August 1972. Revised by: Fran Tracy-Walls in December 2002.

The Good Samaritan Hospital was organized in 1889 in Charlotte under the auspices of St. Peter's Episcopal Church of that city. It is believed to be the first privately funded hospital in the United States built and operated exclusively for black patients.

The origins of the hospital have been attributed both to the mission philosophy of the Episcopal Church and the determined efforts of St. Peter's clergy and parishioners. Of the latter, Jane Renwick Smedberg Wilkes (1827-1913) was particularly outstanding in her efforts to establish the hospital and to lead other philanthropic activities in the community for more than fifty years. Good Samaritan was erected with funds raised by private subscriptions and by continuous appeals through the Episcopal church papers.

The hospital began operation in 1891 under the governance of a board of managers, all women of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. In 1925, a major addition was built immediately behind the original building which more than doubled the facility's capacity. In the 1930's additional property was acquired, and in 1937 another wing was added, making it at the time a 100-bed hospital with the latest equipment. Staff included 22 nurses, with patients from most of the doctors of the city. By the early 1950's, however, the facilities and staffing were not able to keep pace with the years, and a small church found it increasingly difficult to support a modern hospital, even with monies that had come over the years from the Duke Endowment
and the Julius Rosenwald fund.

In 1959, Memorial Hospital (now known as Carolinas Medical Center) agreed to take over Good Samaritan and the hospital continued to serve the purpose for which it was built, under a staff of both white and black doctors. However, during 1960 the Episcopal church gave the hospital to the City of Charlotte, and the hospital came under the supervision of the Memorial Hospital Authority. In June, 1961, the site was formally passed to the ownership of the city. It was used as a hospital until 1982 under the name, Charlotte Community Hospital. Then it functioned for a time as the Magnolias Rest Home. In 1990 the building was demolished to make room for Ericsson Stadium.

1. Minutes,1916-1953

2. Miscellaneous Reports and Administrative Records,1892-1960

3. Miscellaneous Records, no date

Some of the records of the Good Samaritan Hospital were loaned by Mrs. John S. Gaul of Charlotte and some by Mr. Allen Wilkes, formerly a student at North Carolina State University. Mrs. Gaul, who had served as secretary of the hospital's Board of Managers, and Mr. Wilkes, who accumulated some of the material while working on a seminar paper related to this hospital, loaned these records for archival custody upon receipt of permission from the Diocesan Headquarters of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The records were received 29 October 1970 and accessioned 13 June 1972.