Community Hospital of San Bernardino

By Joyce A. Hanson, Suzie Earp and Erin Shanks

Dr. William Henry Mills, fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians in London, arrived in San Bernardino, California in February 1903. Recruited by Dr. George Rowell as a medical partner, Dr. Mills quickly realized that surgical facilities in San Bernardino were woefully inadequate. Determined to improve medical care, in 1906 Mills converted an old wooden residence at the corner of Fourth and F Streets into the Marlborough Hospital. In 1909, with the need for additional space acute, Dr. Mills approached his friend, attorney Ralph Swing, for funding to purchase land at the site of an old adobe saloon located at the corner of Fourth Street and Arrowhead Avenue. In March of 1909, Swing and Mills purchased the land and began construction of a two-story stucco hospital building with beds for 42 patients and a modern operating room. Ramona Hospital, later renamed Community Hospital, opened its doors in February 1910 and has operated continuously, providing state-of-the-art medical care for area residents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 7, 2009
• ISBN: 9781439623244

Joyce A. Hanson

Joyce A. Hanson, professor of history at California State University, San Bernardino; Suzie Earp, local historian and archivist; and recent graduate Erin Shanks have selected and narrated this visual history of one of the earliest modern health-care facilities in San Bernardino.

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INTRODUCTION

At the dawn of the 20th century, 6,150 people, about 50 saloons, several hotels, numerous stores, a red-light vice district, and pleasant residential areas called San Bernardino, California, home. The city had grown substantially since being founded by the Mormons in 1851; at least some of this growth can be attributed to its geographic location. San Bernardino was located in an area generally considered to be ideal for general health and a recuperative place for those respiratory conditions. But despite its reputation as a healthy place, most health care was delivered in private homes, and it wasn’t until the late 1860s that a health care facility was established in the city; even that was merely a place that primarily treated those with smallpox. Finally, in 1886, the county Board of Supervisors authorized San Bernardino’s first official hospital, the San Bernardino County Charity Hospital. As its name suggests, the county hospital treated those unable to pay for private medical services. Non-charity cases still relied on private medical care.

Dr. George B. Rowell was one of the physicians who had established a successful medical practice by 1900, and he wanted a certified medical graduate to share his practice with him. Dr. Rowell believed that his best chance to find someone with a formal medical education was to look to England, where medical licensing was well established, unlike the United States. In 1902, Dr. Rowell placed an advertisement for a medical partner in the London Times. A 30-year-old graduate of the Edinburgh University Medical School and London’s famed St. Thomas Hospital, Dr. Henry William Mills, answered Rowell’s advertisement. At the time, Dr. Mills was a fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians. The history of Community Hospital begins with Dr. Mills’s arrival in San Bernardino in February 1903. Soon after arriving, Dr. Mills realized that the surgical facilities available were woefully inadequate. Mills was determined to correct this and in 1906 converted an old wooden residence at the corner of Fourth and F Streets into the Marlborough Hospital. Dr. Mills along with Dr. M. Campbell Billings operated the facility until the need for additional space became acute in 1909.

Dr. Mills approached his friend the distinguished attorney Ralph Swing for funding to purchase land at the site of an old adobe saloon located at the corner of Fourth Street and Arrowhead Avenue. After much discussion, in March 1909, Swing and Mills invested $10,000, purchased the land, and began construction of a two-story stucco hospital building with beds for 42 patients and an adequate operating room. Ramona Hospital opened its doors in February 1910. Ralph Swing became the first business advisor, and Dr. Mills was the hospital administrator. Between 1910 and 1931, Ramona Hospital was the only first-class surgical hospital in the San Bernardino area. During World War I, Ramona Hospital took care of numerous victims of the devastating influenza epidemic that swept the country and army camps. After World War I, as community needs grew, Ramona Hospital expanded, adding a nurse’s training school and living quarters. About 1920, Dr. Mills founded a second hospital, Sequoia, in a two-story residence at the southeast corner of Fifth and D Streets. Drs. Clause Lashlee, Russell W. Prince, and C. C. Owen, now historical figures in the medical history of San Bernardino, became associated with Dr. Mills. Dr. Mills died on March 26, 1927, at the age of 54 from septicemia, an infection of the bloodstream. Despite Dr. Mills’s early death, Ramona Hospital continued operating under the administration of Dr. Claude H. Lashlee, but the Great Depression took its toll on the hospital. In 1932, the bank took over the operation of the hospital, which had been held as a proprietary institution. It seemed as if Ramona Hospital would close its doors forever.

Dr. Lashlee, along with 15 other doctors, a dentist, and one layman, immediately formed the Ramona Hospital Association, donating and raising $40,014 to buy Ramona Hospital back from the bank and keep the doors open. The group then went ahead and added an additional 23-bed surgical wing, increasing the hospital to a 65-bed capacity. Despite their optimism, times were still hard and money was tight. To keep the doors open, the 18 members of the association made monthly donations to the hospital so that it could pay salaries, utilities, and operating expenses. Within four years, it became apparent that even with careful management the association could not manage to meet expenses and pay property taxes. To alleviate this problem, in 1938, the Ramona Hospital Association reorganized itself into a charitable nonprofit corporation with a new name—San Bernardino Community Hospital.

Slowly but surely, San Bernardino Community Hospital began paying its bills on time and even managed to buy some additional property to the north and east of the hospital. It was in March 1943 that Virginia Henderson, the woman who would play a major role in the hospital’s expansion, began working as office manager. Henderson would work her way up in the administration and become the hospital’s administrator, one of the few women hospital administrators in the country who was not affiliated with a religious order. Despite shortages of essential medical supplies, under Henderson’s guidance, San Bernardino Community Hospital gained status as an accredited hospital by the Joint Commission on Hospital Administration.

After agreeing to sell the property at Fourth Street and Arrowhead Avenue to the City of San Bernardino for the construction of a civic center, San Bernardino Community Hospital began its search for a new home. In April 1953, the newly reorganized Board of Directors purchased land at Seventeenth Street and Western Avenue, hiring the firm of Buttress and McClellan to determine if the community could support a 200-bed hospital. Frustration followed as the hospital tried to secure financing to construct the new building. Turned down by a major life insurance company and the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and told it would be 73rd on a list of Southern California hospitals seeking state funding, Drs. Eugene Hull,