Morgan Hospital

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Out in Childress, there's a building that's been standing since 1916, and it's got a story worth slowing down for. It's a double-galleried structure, the kind with those stacked porches that give it a stately, Colonial Revival look, and when it went up, it was built to house the clinic of two doctors: Dr.

J.D. Michie and Dr. H.D.

Barnes. Now, in a town still finding its footing on the Texas plains, having a proper medical facility like that was no small thing. This wasn't a back-room operation.

This was a real clinic, purpose-built, and it stood as one of the earliest medical care facilities Childress had to call its own. Nine years after that building first opened its doors, it changed hands. Dr.

T.M. Morgan came into the picture in 1925, purchased the facility, and put his name on it. The Morgan Hospital.

He ran that place, kept it going, kept people cared for, and by all accounts he didn't stop. He operated it until his death in 1941. That's a long stretch of dedication to one town, one building, one purpose.

When you drive past it now, what you're seeing is something the marker calls a reminder of the medical care provided by the town's early physicians. And that's exactly right. The double galleries, the Colonial Revival lines, the whole quiet presence of the place, it all adds up to something that outlasted the men who built it and the man who gave it its name.

Childress kept the building. The building kept the memory. That's a fair trade.

What the marker says

One of the earliest medical care facilities in Childress, this double-galleried building was constructed in 1916 to house the clinic of Dr. J.D. Michie and Dr. H.D. Barnes. Nine years later it was purchased by Dr. T.M. Morgan, who operated the facility as the Morgan Hospital until his death in 1941. The building, which reflects influences of the Colonial Revival style, now serves as a reminder of the medical care provided by the town's early physicians. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1982