FAMU will unveil a historical marker granted to the
university by the Florida Department of State during its annual Black History
Convocation scheduled for Feb. 13.
The marker recognizes the site of FAMU’s former hospital and its significant contributions to the State of Florida and the black community during an era when health care options were sparse.
The FAMU hospital served as the only medical facility for blacks within 150 miles of Tallahassee from 1950-1971 and ushered in FAMU’s world-class nursing and pharmacy programs.
Not only did the hospital break barriers in health care
education, but it also served as an example of the university’s legacy of
resilience.
Since the 1890s, FAMU administrators worked tirelessly to establish a medical
facility to serve FAMU’s campus and surrounding black communities. The
existence of the hospital was birthed from then-President Thomas Tucker’s
determination to create a nurse training facility on campus grounds.Tucker’s request to fund a nurse training facility was originally denied by the Board of Education. In the early 1900’s, then-President Nathan B. Young continued to work to bring a nurse training facility to FAMU. In 1909, he was ultimately successful in securing funding to construct a medical facility to house a nurse training school.
The sanitarium opened in 1911 as a wooden, 19-bed building to train nursing students. By 1926, the facility had unofficially developed into the School of Nursing and had a 100-bed capacity. This progress resulted in the development of the Florida A&M College Clinical Association in 1936.
In 1937, then-president William H. Gray, Jr. and Dr. Leonard H.B. Foote, the first director of the FAMU hospital, embarked on a 10-year fundraising campaign to build a new hospital. During the campaign, in 1946, the sanitarium became the FAMC Hospital, Health Center and Nursing School. In the same year, the legendary Dr. Charles Drew provided free services for local and regional patients at the facility’s annual clinic.
By 1950, the university had garnered $2 million to build the
fully- operational FAMU Hospital. In 1971, the hospital closed and was
renovated to house the Foote-Hilyer Administration Center and Student Health
Services, which still stands today. The hospital’s closure came four years
after state officials decided to transfer the hospital’s funding to
then-Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. In spite of its closure, the former
hospital site has continued to serve the medical needs of FAMU students into
the 21st century.
The historical marker will be unveiled during the Black
History Convocation and later placed in its permanent home on the corner of
Palmer Avenue and Adams Street during an installation ceremony scheduled Feb.
28 at 10 am.