DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put down in stone — or in this case, a marker placed in Jefferson County in 2023. Now settle in, because this is a story about three brothers, a city that didn't always live up to its better self, and what happens when a family decides to build what the world refuses to provide. The year is 1944.
Beaumont, Texas. Jim Crow is the law of the land, and that law has teeth. Black patients in Beaumont are being turned away from hospitals — denied care, denied dignity — simply because of the color of their skin.
Most folks in that situation could only suffer the injustice. But two brothers, both physicians, decided they had another option entirely. Dr.
Edward D. Sprott, Jr. and Dr. Curtis B.
Sprott founded Sprott Hospital that same year. And they didn't waste any time about it. Construction began on June 19, 1944, right there in the Cartwright Addition in southwest Beaumont.
They hired a local architect named Wallace B. Livesay to design the building and a contractor by the name of H.B. Neild to put it up.
The whole thing cost twenty-five thousand, nine hundred dollars. And on October 1, 1944 — less than four months after the first shovel hit the ground — Sprott Hospital opened its doors. Now picture that building as it first stood.
One story. Rectangular. Brick, with a wide stuccoed frieze band running across the face of it.
A flat roof. Twenty single and paired windows spaced across the facade, and a central entrance flanked by double doors. It wasn't a sprawling medical campus.
But what it was, was open — open to people who had nowhere else to go. And what they offered inside those walls was no small thing. Laboratory services.
X-ray services. Obstetric care, so that Black mothers in Beaumont had a place to bring new life into the world with dignity. Pediatric care for the children.
Minor surgery. Urgent care. The Sprott doctors and other family members lived nearby, which tells you something — this wasn't just a business venture.
It was a calling, rooted right in the neighborhood it served. Then in 1951, something worth noting: Sprott Hospital was accepted as a member of the Texas Hospital Association, meeting every one of the American Medical Association's requirements. That's not a small footnote.
That's a statement. And the hospital didn't stop there. It offered nursing courses and training, actively working to bring more people into the medical profession.
They weren't just treating the community — they were building it. Now, you know a good thing when the family keeps showing up for it. In 1955, a third brother joined the practice — Dr.
Maxie Sprott. Three Sprott brothers, three physicians, one hospital, one mission. Years passed.
The world, slowly and imperfectly, began to change. As discrimination in healthcare diminished, the need for segregated hospitals and clinics like Sprott Hospital decreased. By 1969, the facility transitioned to housing Dr.
Maxie Sprott's private medical practice. The building itself changed too over time — the brick got stuccoed over, a gabled roof replaced the flat one, and those original double entry doors gave way to a single glass door with narrow sidelights. Different, but still standing.
Still serving. And that right there might be the most quietly remarkable part of this whole story. A building erected in the summer of 1944, born out of exclusion and injustice, has continued to serve the community as a healthcare facility all the way into the present day.
The Texas Historical Commission saw fit to recognize it as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2023. Three brothers built something that outlasted the laws that made it necessary. That's not just history.
That's a legacy with good bones.
What the marker says
In 1944, African American physicians and brothers Dr. Edward D. Sprott, Jr. and Dr. Curtis B. Sprott founded Sprott Hospital in order to provide quality care for Black patients of Beaumont often denied care in other local hospitals due to Jim Crow era laws. Their brother, Dr. Maxie Sprott, joined them in 1955. The doctors, along with other family members, lived nearby. The hospital provided a wide variety of care including laboratory and X-ray services, and obstetric and pediatric care, along with minor surgery and urgent care. In 1951, the hospital was accepted as a member of the Texas Hospital Association per the American Medical Association's requirements. In order to promote careers in the medical field, the hospital offered nursing courses and training. Located in the Cartwright Addition in southwest Beaumont, construction on the hospital began on June 19, 1944. The one-story rectangular plan building was designed by local architect Wallace B. Livesay and erected by contractor H.B. Neild for a cost of $25,900. It opened on October 1, 1944. Originally a flat-roofed building of brick with a wide stuccoed frieze band, the hospital features a central entrance along with twenty single and paired windows spaced across the facade. Today, the brick has been stuccoed, a gabled roof added, and the double entry doors have been replaced with a single glass door with narrow sidelights. As discrimination in healthcare diminished, the need for segregated hospitals and clinics like Sprott Hospital decreased. The facility transitioned in 1969 to housing Dr. Maxie Sprott's private medical practice. The site has continued to serve the community as a healthcare facility. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2023