DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas County. Pull up a chair, because this one starts with a city that had a problem, a doctor with some nerve, and an idea that turned into something nobody could have predicted. The year is 1900.
Dallas is a city of more than forty thousand people, and the medical care available to them is, to put it plainly, insufficient. Now, some of the local doctors were apparently fine with that arrangement. But Dr.
Charles McDaniel Rosser was not. That year, despite opposition from those very colleagues, Rosser established something called the University of Dallas Medical School. Here's the part worth savoring: at the time, no such university existed.
The school had a name, a mission, and a founder — just no university behind it. Rosser also opened a training facility in a small house, which he called the Good Samaritan Hospital. Small house.
Grand name. That's a Texas-sized vision right there. Rosser kept pushing for something bigger, something with real local backing.
And in 1903, he got an unlikely ally. Dr. George W.
Truett, the influential pastor of Dallas' First Baptist Church, stood up and challenged Dallas citizens to support what he called a great humanitarian hospital. The Baptist General Convention of Texas agreed to take on the project. They chartered it in 1903 as the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium.
The Baptist group purchased Rosser's hospital and kept using it as a training facility, and that same year the medical school was renamed Baylor College of Medicine. The board needed leadership and it needed money. Dr.
Robert Cook Buckner became the first board president. Cattle baron Christopher C. Slaughter stepped up as an early major donor, helping finance a brand-new two-hundred-and-fifty-bed facility that opened in 1909.
That's a long way from a small house. The institution kept growing and kept changing its name to match what it was becoming. In 1921 it was renamed Baylor Hospital, and then Baylor University Hospital, reflecting its affiliation with Baylor University in Waco, which sponsored the schools on the hospital's campus.
Then came 1929, and something that would echo far beyond Dallas. The Baylor Plan — a pioneering hospital insurance program — was created that year. It later became Blue Cross.
Think on that a moment. A program born out of this hospital campus eventually helped reshape how Americans pay for medical care. In 1943, Baylor University relocated its college of medicine to Houston.
The hospital stayed in Dallas. And in 1959, it changed its name one more time — to Baylor University Medical Center — to better represent the various hospitals and specialty areas that had grown up on its campus. By 2003, the center was a hundred years old, still standing, still training doctors, still one of the nation's top facilities for transplants, cardiovascular surgery, and more.
What started with one doctor, a small house, and a medical school attached to a university that didn't exist yet had become something Charles McDaniel Rosser would hardly recognize — and probably couldn't help but admire.
What the marker says
Baylor University Medical Center Dallas in 1900 had insufficient medical care for its more than 40,000 residents. That year, despite some opposition from local doctors, Dr. Charles McDaniel Rosser established the University of Dallas Medical School, although at the time no such university existed. Rosser opened, in a small house, the Good Samaritan hospital as a training facility. He continued to look for local support for a larger teaching hospital. In 1903, Dr. George W. Truett, influential pastor of Dallas' First Baptist Church, challenged Dallas citizens to support a "great humanitarian hospital." The Baptist General Convention of Texas agreed to administer the project, which became the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium. It received its charter in 1903. The Baptist group purchased Dr. Rosser's hospital and continued using it as a training facility for the school, renamed that same year as Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Robert Cook Buckner was first board president, and cattle baron Christopher C. Slaughter was an early major donor, helping to finance a new 250-bed facility, which opened in 1909. In 1921, the facility was renamed Baylor Hospital and later Baylor University Hospital to reflect its affiliation with Waco's Baylor University, which sponsored the schools on the hospital's campus. The Baylor Plan, created in 1929, was a pioneering hospital insurance program that later became Blue Cross. In 1943, Baylor University relocated its college of medicine to Houston. The hospital remained in Dallas, changing its name in 1959 to Baylor University Medical Center to represent better the various hospitals and specialty areas on its campus. The center, a century old in 2003, remains a major research hub, providing patient care and medical training. Continuing its mission of service and excellence, the center is also one of the nation's top facilities for transplants, cardiovascular surgery and other procedures. (2002)