After Dr. William H. Blythe retired and sold the Blythe Sanitarium to A. P. Williams in 1918, Mr. Williams turned the sanitarium into the Jefferson Hotel. That left Mt. Pleasant and Titus County without a hospital of any kind.
While researching early news articles, we read of many cases where very, very seriously injured people were taken to their own home for treatment. Many died. Others, if they could stand the trip, were taken to hospitals in Dallas or Paris, Texas for treatment. Without paramedics and Mobile Intensive Care Unit ambulances, which would not come about for years in the future, and considering the condition of the day's roads, Dallas or even Paris was a very long and dangerous trip.
On May 7, 1935, Dr. Willis A. Taylor (photo inset above) announced at the Chamber of Commerce meeting that he planned to erect a modern hospital in Mt. Pleasant within a few months if he could find a suitable location near the downtown business district.
He said that Titus County people were spending around $40,000 a year at other hospitals because Mt. Pleasant had no suitable hospital, and he felt much of the money would be spent here if a hospital was available. He said that his son, Dr. William Taylor, would return to Mt. Pleasant in July to practice once he finished his surgical internship, and would be associated with the new hospital and clinic.
After graduating from Texas A. & M. College, the University of Texas Medical School, and spending a year's internship in Los Angeles and Fresno, California, Dr. William Taylor returned to Mt. Pleasant in July, 1935 and opened an office in the Cleland building.
Drs. W.A. and William Taylor bought a lot on the southeast corner of Van Buren Avenue and West Third Street, just west of the post office, from Mrs. Bessie Caldwell. On February 13, 1936, they awarded P. T. Wray a contract to build a modern two story brick hospital and clinic on their lot facing West Third Street.
The hospital's exterior would be cream-face brick. Although the doctors had planned their hospital months before Talco oil was discovered and the oil boom had nothing to do with their original plans, they enlarged their plans after the early February oil discovery. The doctors planned to spend $10,000 to build the new hospital. It would now have twenty rooms, including twelve to fifteen patient rooms. It would also contain an operating room, X-Ray room, offices, kitchens, laundry, nurses' quarters, and other features. A large reception room was located in the front center of the first floor. All rooms were finished in textone (textured sheetrock), and the building was equipped with modern hospital furnishings.
The foundation was started on Monday, February 17, 1936, and weather permitting, Mr. Wray hoped to have the hospital ready for occupancy by April 1.
By late April the building was almost complete, with only a few minor details and installation of an elevator remaining. The doctors began moving their office equipment from the Cleland Building to the new hospital on Monday, April 27. They also installed lots of new equipment specially ordered for the hospital. When it opened, Taylor Hospital and Clinic was one of the most modern medical facilities in Northeast Texas. The beds and furniture were metal and designed to be easily kept clean and sanitary.
In September, 1937, Taylor Hospital installed a new Standard X-Ray machine with both horizontal and vertical fluoroscopes and a patient table that could be adjusted to any position.
Dr. Willlis A. Taylor served as Titus County's health officer in the early 1950s, and helped arrange for the Texas Department of Health's mobile X-Ray unit to provide free chest X-rays to screen residents for tuberculosis during that period.
Taylor hospital closed when the Mt. Pleasant Hospital and Clinic opened on the southwest corner of West Sixth Street and North Van Buren Avenue, where Mt. Pleasant's City Hall is now located.
Taylor Hospital was next door immediately west of the Mt. Pleasant Daily Times' printing plant. The Daily Times bought the building after the hospital closed and used it for business offices.
Dr. Willis A. Taylor died October 3, 1969 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery, Mt. Pleasant.
The Taylor Hospital building still exists and is in very good condition for an early structure. The photo above shows the building on April 3, 2007. The Baker and Johnson accounting firm currently occupies the building as of January, 2008.
An interesting sidelight regarding the Doctors Taylor is that in 1936 Mt. Pleasant had nine doctors named Taylor. Doctors J. S. Taylor, Willis A. Taylor, William A. Taylor and Fred O. Taylor, were all Doctors of Medicine; Dr. Paul A. Taylor was an Optometrist; and Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Taylor and Dr. and Mrs. R. A. Taylor were chiropractors.
We hope to add to the above historical notes as time and information permits.
