Scott & White Hospital

Duane's take

Here's my telling of the story told on the official marker for Scott and White Hospital, standing in Bell County, Texas. Pull up a chair, because this one starts with a railroad and ends with a million patients. That's not an exaggeration.

That's just Temple, Texas, doing what Temple does. The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway established the town of Temple in 1881. Ten years later, in 1891, that same railway located its hospital right there in Temple.

Railroads had their reasons for taking care of their workers, and Temple was where they planted that flag. Then, in 1892, a doctor named Arthur Carroll Scott, Senior came aboard as Chief Surgeon of the Railway. Now remember that name.

Dr. Scott, born in 1865, had a way of building things. Three years into his tenure, in 1895, he hired a younger physician, Dr.

Raleigh R. White, Junior, born in 1871. White moved up fast.

By 1897 he had been promoted to co-chief Surgeon. And that same year, 1897, Scott and White decided the railroad's walls weren't big enough for what they had in mind. They formed a private practice partnership.

Seven years later, in 1904, they opened their own hospital. They called it the Temple Sanitarium, and it sat right in the heart of downtown Temple. That name, Temple Sanitarium, held for nearly two decades.

In 1922 the hospital was renamed Scott and White Hospital, and it expanded until it covered six city blocks. Six city blocks of medicine, right there in the middle of town. The place became a training facility for nurses and doctors.

Then came World War II, and after the war, several new divisions of specialized medicine were added. The reputation grew. Not just regional.

National. Scott and White gained a national reputation for medical research. In 1963 the hospital relocated to this very site, and the expansion continued.

By 1995, more than six thousand people were employed there, and over one million patient visits had been recorded in a single stretch. One million. The marker calls it the largest group practice in Texas, and a world-renowned medical facility.

It all started with a railroad, a town carved out in 1881, and two doctors who looked at a railway hospital and saw something bigger. Dr. White didn't live to see all of it, gone in 1917.

Dr. Scott lived until 1940, long enough to watch the thing they built together grow well beyond either man's name on the door. Sometimes the best tall tale is the one that actually happened.

What the marker says

The Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway established the town of Temple in 1881 and located the Santa Fe Railway Hospital at Temple in 1891. Dr. Arthur Carroll Scott, Sr. (1865-1940) became Chief Surgeon of the Railway in 1892. In 1895 he hired Dr. Raleigh R. White, Jr., (1871-1917) who was promoted to co-chief Surgeon by 1897. Doctors Scott and White formed a private practice partnership in 1897, and in 1904 they opened a hospital known as the Temple Sanitarium. Located in downtown Temple, it was renamed Scott & White Hospital in 1922 and expanded to six city blocks. The hospital became a training facility for nurses and doctors. Several new divisions of specialized medicine were added after World War II, and the hospital gained a national reputation for medical research. Following relocation to this site in 1963, the hospital expanded. By 1995 more than 6,000 people were employed here, and over one million patient visits were recorded. The largest group practice in Texas, Scott & White continues as a leader in the development of health care and has become a world-renowned medical facility. (1997)