St. Agnes May Heal Again

March 27, 2009

By: Josh Shaffer

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RALEIGH -- Almost 50 years ago, St. Agnes Hospital shut its doors on Oakwood Avenue and started a slow slide from revered black infirmary to crumbling stone skeleton.

There's no clue of the generations of poor blacks treated there for typhoid and malaria, or student nurses learning skills that were largely restricted to white society. There's not even a marker noting that world champion boxer Jack Johnson and blood bank innovator Dr. Charles Drew died at St. Agnes -- or that controversial sterilizations took place there.

But plans to revive the century-old hospital are getting fresh momentum after decades of stumbles. St. Augustine's College says it has about a quarter of the $10 million needed to rebuild its campus landmark, boosted by $285,000 in federal money secured by Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat. Coldwell Banker has authored a plan calling for the old stone hulk to house dialysis, prostate screening and other clinics for Southeast Raleigh residents already short on nearby medical care.

Efforts are under way to renovate the historic and crumbling St. Agnes Hospital building at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh.

Students at St. Augustine's College, where St. Agnes stands, could take pre-med courses and train in those private clinics. In the school's starriest dreams, the storied St. Agnes nursing program would be reborn.

"This is really starting to happen," said Marc Newman, a St. Augustine's vice president, noting the boost for modern students as well vanished history. "If you were an African-American nurse on the East Coast, you spent some time at St. Agnes."

Before integration, most cities sent blacks to small sections of white hospitals, or denied them care outright. Of the few black hospitals, even fewer trained doctors and nurses, or performed surgery.

Rebuilding the century-old building could restore pride to a Southeast Raleigh neighborhood filled with people born and treated at St. Agnes -- once considered the best hospital for blacks between Virginia and New Orleans.

"I was born right there in December of 1946," said Ralph Campbell, former state auditor and St. Aug's alumnus. "It is a historic facility not only because it was the only hospital that served African-Americans in Raleigh and Wake County when others did not, but also it was a training ground for the nurses and doctors who treated them."

Hewn from granite

St. Agnes opened in 1896 inside a vacant house on campus, managing patients with a single cold-water faucet.

As it grew, St. Aug's students quarried the granite themselves for a new building, and the roofless exterior still stands -- sky showing through the arched windows.

But throughout its early history, it served the city's poor, stricken disproportionately with malaria or typhoid. Often, the hospital accepted goods as payment.

It saw both Johnson and Drew die there after car wrecks. Drew's visit became known as a notorious injustice because he developed large-scale blood banks yet could not get treatment at Raleigh's better-equipped white hospital.

Other chapters in St. Agnes' history are more sinister.

A retired professor's research recently discovered that at least 11 patients were sterilized at St. Agnes, one of them a 22-year-old mother whom doctors described as unable to control her sexual behavior.

Between 1929 and 1973, about 7,600 state residents were surgically sterilized as part of North Carolina's eugenics program, a popular movement in the early 20th century aimed at improving the human gene pool.

When St. Agnes closed in 1961, black patients were transferred to a "negro Wing" of Wake Memorial Hospital -- now WakeMed.

Federal dollars secured by Rep. Miller are only a sliver of cash needed to restore the landmark -- the total price is an estimated $10 million.

About a quarter of the $10 million has been raised, Newman said. But looming large are previous tries at rebuilding St. Agnes.

A scuttled project

In 1996, the National Park Service awarded the college a $769,000 grant toward repairs. Five years later, Park Service agents came to question how it was spent.

Work stopped, and the construction contractor sued St. Aug's for unpaid bills. The case was settled in arbitration.

This time, Newman said, outside players are lending help.

Coldwell Banker Commercial Trademark Properties is backing the project with a development plan that lists black history, medical need in Southeast Raleigh and the potential for tax credits as reasons a new St. Agnes could be viable.

The hospital's original facade and stone walls would be saved, he said, and a new 25,000 square foot building would be added.

Retired professor Irene Clark has compiled volumes of documents and rooms full of artifacts from the old hospital, including the eugenics research. She hopes that some of the new building will be set aside for exhibits.

"I'm talking about period instruments as well as old beds and nursing uniforms," she said, adding that many delicate documents are in storage at St. Aug's. "They need a permanent home."

She hopes that thousands of people driving past the old stone walls, still solid after 10 rough decades, will one day know a bit more about the people who passed through them.

josh.shaffer@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818

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