Brewster Hospital (1901); North Florida Land Trust.

The Old Brewster Hospital and Nurse Training School opened in Jacksonville, Florida in 1901, making it the first medical facility to employ Black physicians and serve the Black community in the city. It was also one of the first training hospitals for African Americans in the nation. The building was constructed in 1885 and served as the private residence of a meat dealer. The hone was located in La Villa at 915 West Monroe Street and later moved to this location.

The hospital began with Hattie Emerson, who noticed girls at her school, Boylan-Haven School, a private institution for African American girls, were interested in nursing. In conjunction with the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, she prepared to formally train the young women at Boylan-Haven. In 1901, the school hired Iowa Benson, who had graduated from the nursing program at Belleview Hospital in New York City, and they began training the students. However, that same year, the Great Fire of 1901 burned down a majority of the city. The school was quickly overrun with sick and wounded patients, as well as many people who had become homeless in the disaster, and they desperately needed a larger facility. In honor of her late husband, Reverend George A. Brewster, Matilda Cutting Brewster from Danielson, Connecticut, made a donation of $1,000 to help fund the hospital. Her contribution helped the school purchase the 915 West Monroe facility, which was one of the few buildings to survive the fire in 1901.

That year, the Old Brewster Hospital made 1,230 house calls. It thrived because many health care institutions on the First Coast would not admit African Americans during the time of segregation; therefore, it was Jacksonville residents’ only option for the Black community. In 1903, Boylan-Haven separated from Brewster Hospital, which continued its own nursing program, but remained located directly behind the hospital. By 1910, the Old Brewster Hospital had become so popular that it once again required a larger facility and relocated to a different area in La Villa. In 1930, funds were raised for a large, 95-bed brick building on North Jefferson Street in what was once the Old Sugar Hill neighborhood. Ground was broken on May 31 that year, and by March 29, 1931, the building was completed and dedicated, at which time the hospital moved again. During the hospital’s stay in that location, officials of Brewster Hospital published brochures inviting the state’s African American doctors to send their patients.

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed and other health care facilities were open to all residents. Consequentially, Brewster Hospital suffered from a drop in revenue and in 1966, Brewster Hospital officially closed. On October 1, 1967, it reopened as Methodist Hospital. In 1976, the original Brewster Hospital that stood on 915 West Monroe was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In the final decades of the last century, it was used as a rooming house. Afterward, it sat empty for years and was in danger of collapsing until the 2000s, when renovations began on the structure.

In 2005, the building was lifted and moved to its present site nearby its original home, at 843 West Monroe Street. In 2007, the city funded a $2.3 million restoration of the building after it had been empty for nearly a decade. In 2012, a historical marker was erected outside Old Brewster Hospital by the Brewster and Community Nurses Alumni Association and the Florida Department of State. Then, in 2019, the nonprofit North Florida Land Trust completed a $391,000 renovation, with an additional $150,000 from the city, in order to lease the property. Plans to do so began two years prior via the president of the trust, Jim McCarthy. During the renovation, the organization restored a parlor room along the brick façade to be open as a “museum” with displays of memorabilia and meetings organized through the Brewster and Community Nurses Alumni Association. They also added a 15-space parking lot behind the facility, as well as refurbished the original wooden floors and staircase, reconfigured space for conference and break rooms, leaving original hearths, and built a locker room with a shower. The building encompasses 5,700 square feet of restored Victorian-style details.

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3. Fillmon, Tim. Old Brewster Hosptial, Historical Marker Database. June 16th 2016. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=93261.
4. Brewster Hospital, The Jacksonville Historical Society. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://www.jaxhistory.org/portfolio-items/brewster-hospital/.
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6. Burmeister, Caren. Brewster Hospital finds new tenant: ‘We are part of the revitalization of LaVilla’, Jacksonville Daily Record. June 11th 2019. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/brewster-hospital-finds-new-tenant-we-are-part-of-the-revitalization-of-lavilla.
7. Gabsewics, Carole. Brewster time capsule reveals history, Jacksonville Daily Record. August 18th 2005. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/brewster-time-capsule-reveals-history.
8. NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM, National Park Service. December 19th 1975. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/cbb29c4f-4944-4f60-a2a0-be92479b81d5.