Hospital Hill History Tour
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Description
A tour of the historic sites of Kansas City's Hospital Hill
1. Diastole Scholar's Center
The Diastole Scholar’s Center on Hospital Hill is an event space owned by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. It hosts various university and non-university retreats, recitals, meetings, as well as civic and scholarly gatherings of all kinds. The center occupies the former home of Dr. E. Grey Dimond, one of the founders of the UMKC School of Medicine. Much of Dr. and Mrs. Dimond’s furnishings and possessions remain in the center including artwork collected on his world travels, as well as the much of the original furnishings and thousands of his books. The home was originally built by the Dimonds in 1977 with its eventual use as a scholar’s center in mind. They named it Diastole, after the technical term from the moment the heart is at rest while it is pumping. The centerpiece of the home is the Kiva, a small sunken auditorium used for lectures and educational purposes.
2. The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry
In 1970, UMKC opened this facility for the School of Dentistry. It replaced the school’s previous antiquated building at 10th and Troost and has enabled UMKC to provide quality dental education to thousands of students over the years. Its dental clinic has been a fixture on Hospital Hill for generations and has long provided affordable dental care to the people of Kansas City and the surrounding areas. The School of Dentistry was UMKC’s first unit on Hospital Hill and paved the way for the creation of the UMKC School of Medicine Building in 1974 and the Health Sciences Building housing the School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Pharmacy in 2007.
3. Children's Mercy Research Institute and Hospital Hill
The history of medicine in Kansas City dates back to 1870, seventeen years after the city's incorporation, when the first hospital arose in what is now the Hospital Hill neighborhood. The evolution of hospitals and medical instruction often included facilities constructed in Hospital Hill, including the recent erection of Children's Mercy Research Institute. Its windows and lighting system mimics the DNA mutations and sequences of genetic anomalies found in patients with rare diseases. The lighting speaks to the profound advancement of medical science from 1870 to the twenty-first century.
4. General Hospital (1908-1976)
General Hospital was completed in 1908 to accommodate Kansas City's growth and the increased reliance by the public on hospitals for medical care. As more people relied on hospitals for medical care, local citizens began an effort to secure public funding for a new hospital and voters approved a bond issue of $225,000 in 1903. Two years later, Colonel Thomas Swope donated 4.5 acres of land atop a hill between Gillham and current-day Kenwood. While constructing the architects realized that the original cost estimates fell short for the hospital to meet the needs of the city. They doubled the beds which doubled the cost. Swope's donation of this land for medical care led to more facilities being constructed in the area and soon the area was known as "Hospital Hill." With newer and larger hospitals being constructed throughout the city, Hospital Hill became home to additional facilities, including Truman Medical Center in 1976, the same year General Hospital served its last patients. The former hospital was demolished in the early 1990s despite efforts by preservationists who hoped at least part of the historic hospital could be repurposed to fit the needs of the city once again.
5. German Hospital (1887-1917) and Research Hospital (1917-1963)
This is the original location of Research Hospital, founded as "German Hospital" by Kansas City’s German community in 1887. The hospital’s mission was to provide quality medical care to the people of Kansas City, regardless of race, creed, or ability to pay. Starting in a three-story house, German Hospital later grew to include a complex of buildings, including a research laboratory and school of nursing, thanks to tireless fundraising and the generosity of prominent German Americans, including William Volker. During the First World War, when anti-German sentiment was strong, the trustees changed the name to Research Hospital. The name change followed closely after the opening of the hospital's research laboratory, the first of its kind in the region. Research Hospital operated on Hospital Hill in the shadow of Kansas City’s more extensive facilities, General Hospital No. 1 and General Hospital No. 2. The small hospital operated for decades before raising the money to build a new, much larger, modern facility at Meyer Blvd and Prospect in 1963. The original Research complex was purchased by the city and used by General Hospital until its abandonment and eventual demolition. University Health #4 Office Building sits at this location today.
6. General Hospital Number 2 (1930-1959)
Constructed in 1930 to replace Kansas City's original City Hospital, General Hospital No. 2 served the African American population until the city integrated its public hospital system in 1958. When the hospital was first constructed, this facility was regarded as the finest hospital in the United States to be built specifically for African Americans. The hospital won numerous honors and reflected the political power of Black voters and leaders in the era when the Pendergast Machine controlled the city. In its almost three decades of operation, the hospital served as a training ground for Black physicians and also serves as a source of pride and professional employment. At the same time, General Hospital No. 2 was more than a symbol of segregation, as the city failed to provide equal funding and support, leading to a separate and unequal system of health care in Kansas City. After the city integrated its hospitals, this building was home to the Western Missouri Mental Health Center for many years. The building was demolished in 2003 and as of 2022, there is no historical marker.
7. Florence Home for Colored Girls (1925-Circa 1970)
Established in 1925, Florence Home for Colored Girls was an organization dedicated to assisting African American mothers and their children by providing counseling, education, shelter, and medical care in Kansas City. The home was initially located at 2446 Michigan Street and later moved to an expanded facility at 2228 Campbell Avenue. In the 1970s, the Florence Home for Colored Girls became the Florence Home and merged with the previously white-only Florence Crittenton Home.
