DUANE
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Duane's take
The way I tell it follows the official marker, right here on the High Plains of Texas. Now settle in, because this story starts with an invitation and ends up being one of the most consequential things that ever happened to Amarillo. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, the High Plains of Texas had no hospital.
Not one. And if you got sick out here, well, the land didn't care much about that. Then came an invitation.
Father David H. Dunne, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Clarendon, Texas, reached out to the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word.
So did a man named David Fly, a doctor out of Amarillo. Between the two of them, they convinced the Sisters to come. A man named Wm.
H. Bush donated the land. And four Sisters, just four of them, opened what they called St.
Anthony's Sanitarium. Potter County's first hospital, right here. Now picture what they were working with.
A fourteen-room red-brick structure. No gas. No electricity.
No telephone. On the High Plains. That is not a comfortable situation.
That is a calling. But they ran it. And then in 1909, they added a two-story wing that brought thirty beds and an operating room into the picture.
That same year, despite what the marker plainly calls hard times, they opened a School of Nursing too. Hard times, and they opened a school. That tells you something about those four Sisters and the institution they built.
The years kept coming. In 1922, a third story went up on that 1909 building, and the Sisters put it to use as a convent. By 1927 and 1928, another addition pushed the hospital to a hundred-bed capacity, and suddenly St.
Anthony's had a laboratory, delivery rooms, X-ray rooms, and more surgical suites. A hundred beds where once there were none. In 1949, a third addition brought the total up to a hundred and fifty beds.
And then, in 1960, the Amarillo Area Foundation helped raise two million dollars for one more addition, and St. Anthony's became a two-hundred-and-fifty-bed general hospital. The original fourteen-room building, the one with no gas, no electricity, no telephone, was demolished in 1955 to make room for the School of Nursing.
Gone, but not without leaving something behind. What started with an invitation, a donated piece of land, and four Sisters has a way of sticking around on the High Plains. Two hundred and fifty beds tend to make a point.
What the marker says
This marks site of Potter County's first hospital organized by Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word on invitation of Father David H. Dunne, Pastor of St. Mary's Church in Clarendon, Texas, and David Fly, M.D., Amarillo. Land was donated by Wm. H. Bush. Four Sisters opened hospital as St. Anthony's Sanitarium. Original building (demolished in 1955 to make room for present School of Nursing) was a 14 room red-brick structure without gas, electricity or telephone service. A 2-story addition in 1909 provided thirty beds and an operating room. Despite hard times, a School of Nursing was also opened that year. In 1922, a third story was added to 1909 building, presently used by the Sisters as a convent. In 1927-28, another addition enlarged facilities to 100-bed capacity and provided a laboratory, delivery rooms, X-ray rooms, and more surgical suites. A third addition in 1949 brought total capacity to 150 beds. A $2,000,000 addition in 1960 making St. Anthony's a 250-bed general hospital was made possible by funds raised by the Amarillo Area Foundation. (1966)