Bethania Hospital

The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, founded in Rome in 1875 by Mother Mary Francis Siedliska, reached Texas in 1928. At Dalhart the city council granted them five acres that April, and Loretto Hospital, built for $200,000, was dedicated in May 1929. At Mineral Wells they took over Nazareth Hospital from the Crazy Water Company, and Bishop Joseph P. Lynch blessed it in June 1931. Wichita Falls came next. In 1933, answering requests for a Catholic-run hospital, the sisters bought the Hargrave-Walker Hospital, remodeled and modernized it, and renamed it Bethania.

What the plaque says

Bethania Hospital The oil boom of 1918 was still benefitting Wichita Falls in the 1920s as the population increased to 55,000 residents. Drs. R.L. Hargrave and M.M. Walker saw the need for another medical facility besides the Wichita General Hospital and built the Hargrave-Walker Clinic and Hospital on 11th Street in 1926. The hospital was purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in 1934. Originally from Poland, the sisters came to America in the late 1800s to minister to Polish immigrants. They named the hospital Bethania Hospital in 1935 and it opened with eight Sisters in charge under the leadership of Mother Marie Delourdes. In 1942, renovations were conducted, increasing the original 25-bed hospital by 23 beds and adding two floors. After WWII, a four-story wing was added to the original building. In 1959, Bethania graduated its first class of licensed vocational nurses and continually ranked in the top five nursing schools in America. More construction in 1972 added four stories to the 1959 building called the West Tower. Three new floors were added to the furthest west building in 1986 and a 25-foot metal cross was placed atop the west tower. In 1988, the original Bethania building was razed to provide a new entry and parking. In 1997, Bethania and Wichita General Hospitals merged as United Regional Heath Care System. The Sisters remained with the system until 2006, at which time they gifted their property on 11th Street to United Regional Health Care System, leaving a lasting legacy of care to the citizens of Wichita Falls and the surrounding area. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kell House Museum — 0.4 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 1.0 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 12 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 18 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul Lutheran Church — steps away
• Wichita General Hospital — 0.2 mi
• Wichita Falls Junior College — 0.3 mi
• Lloyd Ruby — 0.3 mi