DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the log cabin study of Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott, out in Bell County. Now, picture this.
Two small log corn cribs — the kind that used to hold grain, nothing fancy — get pulled together, joined up, and transformed into something altogether different. A retreat. A sanctuary.
The private world of one of the most consequential doctors in Texas history. Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott was born July 12, 1865, and he lived until October 27, 1940.
In the years between, he helped build something that would draw tens of thousands of patients every year from all across the nation. But we'll get to that. First, let's sit a spell in that cabin.
From the 1920s all the way to 1940, Dr. Scott used this place as his private study and retreat. No staff.
No schedules interrupting him. And — here's the part I love — absolutely no telephone. He would not allow one.
So when the hospital needed him badly enough, somebody out on the dairy farm, 2.6 miles to the northwest, would ring a bell. A bell. To call a co-founder of one of the foremost diagnostic and treatment centers in the whole country back to work.
There is something deeply, stubbornly human about that. Inside those two old joined-up corn cribs, he studied. He wrote.
He entertained guests. And the fireplace — well, the fireplace tells you something about the man. It's built of unusual stones, brought by friends who knew Dr.
Scott was a rock enthusiast. Think about that. His friends, when they visited or passed through somewhere interesting, picked up stones and brought them back for him.
That fireplace is practically a map of his relationships. Outside, for years, the cabin stood in an oak grove surrounded by masses of yellow jasmine and petunias. You can almost smell it.
Now, how did Arthur Carroll Scott get to be the kind of man who needed a place like that to think? He was reared in Gainesville. He earned his medical degree at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York, in 1886.
By 1892 he was chief surgeon of the Santa Fe Railway Hospital right here in Temple. Then in 1897, he began private practice alongside another Santa Fe surgeon — Dr. R.
R. White, born in 1871, died in 1917. Those two men, Scott and White, in 1904 founded the Temple Sanitarium.
That was the progenitor — the original seed — of what would become Scott and White Hospital. For years, as the institution grew and drew patients from across the country, expansion was met with temporary quarters. But that institution kept growing.
By 1960, the hospital occupied 31 buildings. And in 1963, a new ten-million-dollar hospital complex opened. In 1972, the cabin was moved from that oak grove on the dairy farm and dedicated as a museum — those two old corn cribs, finally getting the recognition they deserved.
A man who built one of the nation's foremost medical centers, and asked only for a quiet room, a good fireplace full of stones his friends had carried to him, and the mercy of no ringing telephone. Just a bell, out across the pasture, for when the world truly could not wait.
What the marker says
(July 12, 1865-October 27, 1940) Co-founder of Scott and White Memorial Hospital, Dr. Scott used this cabin from 1920s to 1940 as a private study and retreat. In these rooms (originally two small log "corn cribs" moved here and attached) he studied, wrote, and entertained guests. Fireplace is built of unusual stones brought by friends, who knew he was a rock enthusiast. For years the cabin stood in an oak grove on hospital dairy farm (2.6 mi. NW) surrounded by masses of yellow jasmine and petunias. Dr. Scott never allowed a telephone, so a bell on the farm was rung to call him in case of an emergency. Reared in Gainesville, Scott earned M.D. degree at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, 1886. In 1892 he became chief surgeon of Santa Fe Railway Hospital, Temple; in 1897, began private practice with another Santa Fe surgeon, Dr. R.R. White (1871-1917). The partners in 1904 founded Temple Sanitarium--progenitor of Scott and White Hospital, one of the nation's foremost diagnostic and treatment centers, attracting tens of thousands of patients annually. For years expansion was met with temporary quarters until, by 1960, hospital occupied 31 buildings. In 1963 a new $10 million hospital complex opened; in 1972 cabin was moved here and dedicated as a museum. (1972)