St. Mary's Hospital

Behind the three sisters stood Bishop Claude Dubuis, who led the Diocese of Galveston from 1863. Born in France in 1817, he brought sixty-six religious into Texas during his tenure, the Handbook of Texas says, and many of them were Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of Lyons. Dubuis is credited with founding that order in the United States, with motherhouses in the Galveston-Houston and San Antonio dioceses. As bishop he directed the building of hospitals, schools and orphanages. Poor health sent him back to France in 1880.

What the plaque says

St. Mary's Hospital Organized in 1866, this institution was the first private hospital established in the state. Originally known as Charity Hospital, it was founded by three French Catholic Sisters, members in the Order of Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. Constructed on this site, which had been part of Fort Scurry during the Civil War, the hospital opened for patients on April 1, 1867. The new hospital proved to be a vital addition to the health care facilities of the area. Three months after it was opened, a yellow fever epidemic struck the city. One victim of the disease was the hospital Superior, Mother M. Blandine. Following the epidemic an orphanage and school were established here by the Sisters for children whose parents died of the sickness. The school was closed and the orphanage was later moved to another site in Galveston. St. Mary's played a significant role in the aftermath of two area disasters. In 1900, despite heavy damage caused by a hurricane, the hospital remained open for the treatment of storm victims. In 1947 health care was provided here for many of the thousands injured in a series of chemical explosions and fires at the port of Texas City (8 mi. NW). (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• 1892 Bishop's Palace — 0.6 mi
  Nicholas Clayton's stone house on Broadway for the railroad lawyer Walter Gresham, later home to Galveston's Catholic bishops and one of the most admired Victorian houses in the country.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 1.0 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• The Strand — 1.1 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.
• 1859 Ashton Villa — 1.2 mi
  A brick Italianate house on Broadway, built with enslaved labor in 1859, whose lawn has held Galveston's Juneteenth commemoration of General Orders, No. 3 every year since 1979.

More markers nearby

• Galveston Seawall — steps away
• World War I Physicians from Galveston — 0.2 mi
• General Sidney Sherman — 0.3 mi
• George Washington Chapter - DAR — 0.4 mi