DUANE
Duane's take
The marker at the old Jefferson Davis Hospital site in Houston's First Ward is what I'm going on about today — straight from the official record, best I can tell it. Now, before a single brick of this building went up, the ground it stands on had a story of its own. What is now a neighborhood landmark in the First Ward was once the Houston City Cemetery, established in 1840, active until the 1880s.
And here is where it gets interesting — when the City of Houston and Harris County decided to build a major medical facility on that ground, they apparently took a careful look at what was underneath them. There was no widespread removal of graves from the site. So the builders made a choice: they erected the basement above ground rather than dig into the earth below.
The dead stayed put. Confederate veterans and their families had a request when this hospital was being named. Many of those veterans were among the souls buried on that very site, in that very cemetery.
So the hospital was named for Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederate States of America — named in their honor. City architect W. A.
Dowdy presented his plans to the hospital board in 1923. The main building was designed to accommodate one hundred and fifty patients. The physical plant didn't stop there — it also included a nurses' home, an isolation unit, a garage, and a power house.
The whole thing was completed in 1924. And what a building it was. Three stories of structural concrete and clay tile, wrapped in red brick and cast stone veneer.
Neoclassical style, with a central projecting portico, fluted columns, ionic capitals, pedimented entry doors, brick corner quoins, and cast stone detailing throughout. The kind of building that makes you stop on the sidewalk and look up. This was the beginning — the marker says so plainly — of city-county cooperation in providing centralized medical care for indigent patients in Houston.
A genuine milestone in how the city cared for its people. But the hospital served that original purpose for only thirteen years. Houston was growing fast, and fast-growing cities require new facilities.
In 1937, a new hospital on Buffalo Drive — what is now Allen Parkway — took the name Jefferson Davis Hospital and carried it forward. The original building was left behind with a new, humbler title: Old Jefferson Davis Hospital. From there, the old building cycled through lives that nobody in 1924 likely imagined for it — a psychiatric hospital, a juvenile detention ward, a food stamp distribution center, a records storage facility.
Then several years of standing vacant, the fluted columns and ionic capitals keeping quiet watch over the First Ward. In 2005, the historic building was rehabilitated into residential lofts. The same walls that once held a hundred and fifty patients now hold something else entirely.
Built above the dead because there was nowhere else to go, named for a Confederate president to honor the veterans in the ground below, a landmark in medical cooperation, and eventually a place where people simply live — Old Jefferson Davis Hospital has been a lot of things to Houston. That building has seen more history than most folks ever stop to notice.
What the marker says
This significant medical facility, completed in 1924 and operated jointly by the City of Houston and Harris County, was built atop the 1840 Houston City Cemetery, which was active until the 1880s. As there was no widespread removal of graves from the site, the building's basement was erected above ground. At the request of Confederate veterans and their families, the hospital was named for the former President of the Confederate States of America, in honor of the many Confederate veterans buried here. Jefferson Davis Hospital marks the beginning of city-county cooperation in providing centralized medical care for indigent patients. City architect W.A. Dowdy presented his plans to the hospital board in 1923, with the main building designed to accommodate 150 patients. The physical plant also included a nurses" home, isolation unit, garage and power house. The Neoclassical style building remains a prominent landmark in the First Ward neighborhood. The three-story structural concrete and clay tile building has a red brick and cast stone veneer. Notable elements include its central projecting portico with fluted columns and ionic capitals, cast stone detailing, pedimented entry doors and brick corner quoins. The hospital served its intended purpose for only thirteen years, as a rapidly growing population required new facilities. In 1937 a new hospital on Buffalo Drive (now Allen Parkway) took the name "Jefferson Davis Hospital." This site, then called "Old Jefferson Davis Hospital," served multiple purposes including a psychiatric hospital, juvenile detention ward, food stamp distribution center and records storage facility. After several years standing vacant, the historic building was rehabilitated into residential lofts in 2005. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2008