Neblett Hospital and Clinic

The hospital opened in a decade of public building in Canyon. The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum was established in 1932, new college buildings went up with Work Projects Administration money, and a new post office opened in 1937, the same year Civilian Conservation Corps crews finished Palo Duro Canyon State Park. During the Depression the town's three banks were merged under the First National Bank. Canyon grew from 2,622 people in 1940 to 4,349 by 1950, and by 1987 it had a hospital and nursing center.

What the plaque says

Neblett Hospital and Clinic As a small community west of Amarillo, the city of Canyon worked for years to bring a hospital to its citizens. Previous bond elections to fund a public hospital had failed, and the need for quality health care persisted. After a public meeting in 1935 in Canyon, Dr. Robert A. Neblett (1902-1961), a Tennessee native, University of Texas graduate, and infant feeding and childhood diseases specialist, researched the situation. On April 1, 1937, he announced his intention to build a hospital for the community, Randall County, and West Texas State College students. A site downtown was chosen and Dr. Neblett built a sixteen-room, six-bed hospital in 1937 on 16th Street. Architect Harold Walsh of Amarillo designed the building with George Small as the contractor. A petition from citizens to pave the street surrounding the hospital was granted. The hospital included private rooms, an operating room, delivery room, and an office, and the rooms featured air conditioning, a new comfort at the time. The latest medical equipment was used, with many items donated or funded by the community. The hospital closed on October 1, 1942 so that Dr. Neblett could join the Medical Corps of the Army, serving for 28 months in the Pacific Theater. After his WWII service, he returned to Canyon and the hospital was reopened, a testament to his commitment to healthcare. Many Canyon residents were born or treated in the Neblett Hospital and Clinic, along with countless college students, and the hospital expanded in size to accommodate the growth. After almost four decades, the hospital closed in 1975 and no longer stands. However, the memory of Dr. Neblett, a doctor dedicated to affordable and quality healthcare, endures within the community. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum — 0.6 mi
  The Panhandle's great collection, some two million objects behind a 1933 Art Deco hall carved with cattle brands, closed to the public since March 2025 over fire-safety violations.
• Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1938 Depression-era lake on Tierra Blanca Creek that has gone dry, now 7,664 acres of shortgrass, cottonwood canyon and a prairie dog town on the High Plains south of Umbarger.
• Palo Duro Canyon State Park — 13 mi
  The upper end of the canyon the state bought in 1933, where CCC crews built the road to the floor and the army burned the winter camps of the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne in 1874.
• TEXAS Outdoor Musical — 14 mi
  A summer pageant of Panhandle settler life staged since 1966 in the Pioneer Amphitheater, built into a basin of Palo Duro Canyon below a 600-foot cliff.

More markers nearby

• The Sad Monkey Railroad — steps away
• Clyde & Grace Warwick — steps away
• The Canyon News — steps away
• Smith Building (Palace Hotel) — steps away