Dr. Henry Hofmann Loos

Loos was drafted in 1917 and kept in San Antonio rather than sent overseas, because of his German surname by one account. Back in Bay City he ran a private hospital on Marguerite Street, with an annex made from a former cafe for Black patients. After he threatened several times to close it, including a for-sale notice in January 1938, voters approved a county hospital bond on April 15, 1939. Matagorda General opened on March 16, 1940. Over his career he performed more than 5,000 operations and delivered 2,016 babies in the county.

What the plaque says

Dr. Henry Hofmann Loos Henry Hofmann Loos (1887-1963) graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1908 with a B.A. in the summer of 1911, Dr. Loos interned at the Government Hospital in Colon, Panama Canal Zone. He graduated with an M.D. in 1912 and interned for three and one-half years at Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore under Dr. Joseph Bloodgood. In Bay City, Dr. Claude Jones decided to retire from surgery and wrote to Dr. Bloodgood requesting a replacement. Dr. Loos accepted the position and arrived in Bay City on December 5, 1915. He established a practice in Palacios, but had to make a trip to Bay City when surgery was required. During World War I, Dr. Loos served in the Medical Corps in San Antonio. After being discharged from service, Dr. Loos moved with his family to Bay City. He established his practice in an office over the Matagorda Pharmacy and performed surgeries at Dr. Jones' old hospital. He later performed surgeries at his office and moved his patients to his home. In 1922 he moved the practice outside of town on two acres located on what is now Marguerite Street. The building was annexed several times and a separate wing added for African American patients. During the 1930s, Dr. Loos attempted to gain public support for a county hospital. State Representative Paris Smith introduced a bill enabling communities to pass a bond establishing hospitals. Voters passed the hospital bond and, in 1939, the county hospital board was established. Matagorda General Hospital opened in 1940. Dr. Loos was a member of the Rotary Club and deacon and treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 21 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 25 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.

More markers nearby

• Elliott's Ferry — 0.3 mi
• Site of Hilliard High School — 0.9 mi
• Mother Zion Missionary Baptist Church — 1.1 mi
• St. Mark's Episcopal Church — 1.2 mi