'Homer G.' is source of pride again
By Tim O'Neil
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/23/2005
Jacquelin Roth went to nursing school at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and worked in the maternity ward. Vivian Hubbard joined the noisy protests outside when St. Louis closed it in 1979.
They live there now, and say they couldn't be more pleased that the old landmark is back in business.
"I'd put it up against a five-star hotel," said Roth. Hubbard, even more effusive, said, "It feels like an example of what Jesus has prepared for us in heaven."
Strong praise indeed for the new life of a building that lay dormant and declining for 33 years. The building reopened in December 2002 as the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community. Its managers boast a full house of 300 residents in the 220 apartments and a waiting list of more than 100 applicants.
"I never thought I was just working on a building," said co-developer Sharon Robnett, whose late father began the effort 20 years ago. "This place is a symbol of the struggle of our people."
The hospital, at 2601 Whittier Street, opened in May 1937 as the city's hospital for blacks. At seven stories tall, "Homer G." towered over the Ville, a neighborhood that was home to black professionals, middle-class families and thriving businesses into the 1960s.
It was part of a cluster of buildings that represented black pride in St. Louis. Next door are Sumner High School and the Annie Malone Children's Home. Across Tandy Park is Turner Middle School, former home of Stowe Teachers College before the city combined its black and white teacher schools.
The hospital was named for a prominent black lawyer and local Republican Party activist who lobbied for a major city bond issue in 1923 that included $1.2 million for a new hospital for blacks. Homer G. Phillips also played a key part in a prolonged and successful battle at City Hall to build the hospital in the Ville, where most black leaders wanted it located, rather than next to City Hospital No. 1, at 1515 Lafayette Avenue just south of downtown, where most of the city's white doctors wanted it.
Phillips never saw the groundbreaking. He was shot to death on June 18, 1931, while waiting for a streetcar on Delmar Boulevard just east of Kingshighway. A short time later, the Board of Aldermen voted to name the proposed hospital after him. Police theorized that Phillips was killed on behalf of an angry client, but two teenagers, including a son of the client, were acquitted in separate trials.
Because of the political delays, city voters in 1933 had to approve diverting $700,000 that wasn't used to build the MacArthur Bridge, then known as Municipal Bridge. New Deal money provided the rest of the $3 million to build Homer G. The cornerstone was set on Dec. 10, 1933.
Most of the first patients came from old City Hospital No. 2 for Negroes, in the Mill Creek Valley at 2945 Lawton Avenue, a street that no longer exists. The site is next to Harris-Stowe State College, where Sigma-Aldrich Corp. has its life science center at 2909 Laclede Avenue.
Homer G. also is less than a mile away from a different kind of monument - the home at 4600 Labadie Avenue, once owned by J.D. and Ethel Shelley, a black couple. A lawsuit over their purchase of the home led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1948 that nullified racial restrictions on property deeds.
The new freedom of movement for black families eventually was bad for the Ville, which was in serious decline by 1979, when then-Mayor James F. Conway closed the hospital. He said the city couldn't afford to operate it and City Hospital, which was to be closed six years later.
Coming back home
Today, Homer G. stands amid a mixture of homes, empty and derelict buildings, vacant lots and patches of new construction, including new homes being built in a two-block area just to the south.
Some residents of the new Homer G. were among those who had moved away.
Roth arrived from Memphis in 1949 to attend Homer G.'s nursing school. Her son was born in the hospital. But she lived in University City for the 17 years before she moved in to her apartment in Homer G. Phillips Senior Living. "I'm back in the old stomping grounds," she said.
Hubbard was a longtime Ville resident who underwent surgery in the hospital in 1970. When the city closed it nine years later, Hubbard joined the many protests outside that demanded its reopening. She still has the certificate of appreciation that the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Homer G. Phillips gave her in 1980.
It may have taken too long, she said, but she approves of Homer G.'s new life.
Monica Edwards, one of three staff members who live on site, said many of the other residents also have similar links to the old hospital. Edwards was born there, grew up only a few blocks away, graduated from Sumner and delivered one of her three children there while on a leave from the Army.
"For so many, it's a homecoming," Edwards said.
It was a long road getting there.
Two decades in the making
William A. Thomas, a developer, won endorsement from the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1985 to seek federal assistance for his plan to turn the hospital into a nursing home and senior-living center. Thomas and his firm, W.A. Thomas Realty Co., soon ran afoul of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for their handling of other federal-assisted projects in the city.
That slowed the project until the mid-1990s, when Robnett and her father shed the nursing home half of the project and proceeded with plans for independent-living apartments for older people. Robnett's W.A.T. Dignity Corp. joined in partnership with Dominium Inc., a property management company in Minneapolis. Construction began in 2001, a few months after William Thomas died.
The Dominium-Dignity partnership holds a long-term lease from the city. Dominium manages the new Homer G.
The $42 million renovation project received state and federal historic tax credits that allow the partnership to keep rents affordable, said Jeff Huggett of Dominium. Rents range from $355 per month for a 503-square-foot apartment to $685 for 1,069-foot units. The center has about 20 tenants who qualify for Section 8 rent subsidies, but the others pay market-rate rents.
Income ceilings for eligibility are $27,660 annually for one person, $31,620 for two. Tenants must be at least 55 years old.
The apartments have full kitchens. Edwards said most of the residents cook most of their meals, but the center offers regulars meals in its second-floor dining hall.
Homer G. is an imposing place. Its four wings form two Vs that sweep away from the central tower, a design intended to provide more light and ventilation. Many of the patient areas were open wards. Robnett said workers gutted the old interior and built all new hallways and rooms.
The carpeted hallways resemble a hotel's corridors. The new entrance, which used the old main entrance on the east side, has cherrywood paneling on the walls, pillars and a new grand staircase that rises from the lobby's center to the dining and activity areas. Both floors have gas-log fireplaces. The original cornerstone, which bears the name of Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, is on display near the front door.
Common areas include a library and computer room, and rooms with exercise machines, board games and a wide-screen TV.
The old nursing school dormitory, set away from the hospital, already is part of Annie Malone's children's services. Edwards said there is no passage connecting the old dorm and the hospital.
Eddie Givens said he moved into Homer G. with his wife, Beatrice, "who fell in love with the place." She died one year later. Eddie Givens decided to stay put.
"I'm quite satisfied," he said.
Homer G.'s history
? In the 1930s, St. Louis makes plans for a new hospital for black patients.
? Former Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann sets cornerstone for the Homer G. Phillips Hospital, 2601 Whittier Street, on Dec. 10, 1933.
? Built at a cost of $3 million, the hospital accepts first patients in May 1937.
? City closes it in 1979.
? Partnership reopens building as the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community residences for older people in December 2002 after a $42 million renovation with tax-credit assistance.
Reporter Tim O'Neil
E-mail: toneil@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8132
By Tim O'Neil
Of the Post-Dispatch
02/23/2005
Jacquelin Roth went to nursing school at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and worked in the maternity ward. Vivian Hubbard joined the noisy protests outside when St. Louis closed it in 1979.
They live there now, and say they couldn't be more pleased that the old landmark is back in business.
"I'd put it up against a five-star hotel," said Roth. Hubbard, even more effusive, said, "It feels like an example of what Jesus has prepared for us in heaven."
Strong praise indeed for the new life of a building that lay dormant and declining for 33 years. The building reopened in December 2002 as the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community. Its managers boast a full house of 300 residents in the 220 apartments and a waiting list of more than 100 applicants.
"I never thought I was just working on a building," said co-developer Sharon Robnett, whose late father began the effort 20 years ago. "This place is a symbol of the struggle of our people."
The hospital, at 2601 Whittier Street, opened in May 1937 as the city's hospital for blacks. At seven stories tall, "Homer G." towered over the Ville, a neighborhood that was home to black professionals, middle-class families and thriving businesses into the 1960s.
It was part of a cluster of buildings that represented black pride in St. Louis. Next door are Sumner High School and the Annie Malone Children's Home. Across Tandy Park is Turner Middle School, former home of Stowe Teachers College before the city combined its black and white teacher schools.
The hospital was named for a prominent black lawyer and local Republican Party activist who lobbied for a major city bond issue in 1923 that included $1.2 million for a new hospital for blacks. Homer G. Phillips also played a key part in a prolonged and successful battle at City Hall to build the hospital in the Ville, where most black leaders wanted it located, rather than next to City Hospital No. 1, at 1515 Lafayette Avenue just south of downtown, where most of the city's white doctors wanted it.
Phillips never saw the groundbreaking. He was shot to death on June 18, 1931, while waiting for a streetcar on Delmar Boulevard just east of Kingshighway. A short time later, the Board of Aldermen voted to name the proposed hospital after him. Police theorized that Phillips was killed on behalf of an angry client, but two teenagers, including a son of the client, were acquitted in separate trials.
Because of the political delays, city voters in 1933 had to approve diverting $700,000 that wasn't used to build the MacArthur Bridge, then known as Municipal Bridge. New Deal money provided the rest of the $3 million to build Homer G. The cornerstone was set on Dec. 10, 1933.
Most of the first patients came from old City Hospital No. 2 for Negroes, in the Mill Creek Valley at 2945 Lawton Avenue, a street that no longer exists. The site is next to Harris-Stowe State College, where Sigma-Aldrich Corp. has its life science center at 2909 Laclede Avenue.
Homer G. also is less than a mile away from a different kind of monument - the home at 4600 Labadie Avenue, once owned by J.D. and Ethel Shelley, a black couple. A lawsuit over their purchase of the home led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1948 that nullified racial restrictions on property deeds.
The new freedom of movement for black families eventually was bad for the Ville, which was in serious decline by 1979, when then-Mayor James F. Conway closed the hospital. He said the city couldn't afford to operate it and City Hospital, which was to be closed six years later.
Coming back home
Today, Homer G. stands amid a mixture of homes, empty and derelict buildings, vacant lots and patches of new construction, including new homes being built in a two-block area just to the south.
Some residents of the new Homer G. were among those who had moved away.
Roth arrived from Memphis in 1949 to attend Homer G.'s nursing school. Her son was born in the hospital. But she lived in University City for the 17 years before she moved in to her apartment in Homer G. Phillips Senior Living. "I'm back in the old stomping grounds," she said.
Hubbard was a longtime Ville resident who underwent surgery in the hospital in 1970. When the city closed it nine years later, Hubbard joined the many protests outside that demanded its reopening. She still has the certificate of appreciation that the Ad Hoc Committee to Save Homer G. Phillips gave her in 1980.
It may have taken too long, she said, but she approves of Homer G.'s new life.
Monica Edwards, one of three staff members who live on site, said many of the other residents also have similar links to the old hospital. Edwards was born there, grew up only a few blocks away, graduated from Sumner and delivered one of her three children there while on a leave from the Army.
"For so many, it's a homecoming," Edwards said.
It was a long road getting there.
Two decades in the making
William A. Thomas, a developer, won endorsement from the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1985 to seek federal assistance for his plan to turn the hospital into a nursing home and senior-living center. Thomas and his firm, W.A. Thomas Realty Co., soon ran afoul of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for their handling of other federal-assisted projects in the city.
That slowed the project until the mid-1990s, when Robnett and her father shed the nursing home half of the project and proceeded with plans for independent-living apartments for older people. Robnett's W.A.T. Dignity Corp. joined in partnership with Dominium Inc., a property management company in Minneapolis. Construction began in 2001, a few months after William Thomas died.
The Dominium-Dignity partnership holds a long-term lease from the city. Dominium manages the new Homer G.
The $42 million renovation project received state and federal historic tax credits that allow the partnership to keep rents affordable, said Jeff Huggett of Dominium. Rents range from $355 per month for a 503-square-foot apartment to $685 for 1,069-foot units. The center has about 20 tenants who qualify for Section 8 rent subsidies, but the others pay market-rate rents.
Income ceilings for eligibility are $27,660 annually for one person, $31,620 for two. Tenants must be at least 55 years old.
The apartments have full kitchens. Edwards said most of the residents cook most of their meals, but the center offers regulars meals in its second-floor dining hall.
Homer G. is an imposing place. Its four wings form two Vs that sweep away from the central tower, a design intended to provide more light and ventilation. Many of the patient areas were open wards. Robnett said workers gutted the old interior and built all new hallways and rooms.
The carpeted hallways resemble a hotel's corridors. The new entrance, which used the old main entrance on the east side, has cherrywood paneling on the walls, pillars and a new grand staircase that rises from the lobby's center to the dining and activity areas. Both floors have gas-log fireplaces. The original cornerstone, which bears the name of Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, is on display near the front door.
Common areas include a library and computer room, and rooms with exercise machines, board games and a wide-screen TV.
The old nursing school dormitory, set away from the hospital, already is part of Annie Malone's children's services. Edwards said there is no passage connecting the old dorm and the hospital.
Eddie Givens said he moved into Homer G. with his wife, Beatrice, "who fell in love with the place." She died one year later. Eddie Givens decided to stay put.
"I'm quite satisfied," he said.
Homer G.'s history
? In the 1930s, St. Louis makes plans for a new hospital for black patients.
? Former Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann sets cornerstone for the Homer G. Phillips Hospital, 2601 Whittier Street, on Dec. 10, 1933.
? Built at a cost of $3 million, the hospital accepts first patients in May 1937.
? City closes it in 1979.
? Partnership reopens building as the Homer G. Phillips Senior Living Community residences for older people in December 2002 after a $42 million renovation with tax-credit assistance.
Reporter Tim O'Neil
E-mail: toneil@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8132
