Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
A121049-2
Date(s)
- 1959-05-06 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Three nurses are shown pushing juvenile beds and cribs through a corridor, at Mary Bridge Hospital in this photograph from May of 1959. The hospital, which opened in March of 1955, treated patients from birth to age 14 and served all of southwest Washington. When built, the hospital contained only 40 beds; it was built with the third floor unfinished to allow for future expansion. By 1959 the hospital was constantly overcrowded. A constant shifting of beds was neccessary to meet the needs of the children. Some infectious cases required isolation and boys and girls were always segregated. The hospital contained no single rooms; it had 10 two bed rooms and four 5 bed rooms. In 1959, plans were being made and funds raised to complete the third floor and to build an extension, adding 60 beds for a total of 100. (TNT 5/3/1959, pg. A-14, TNT 5/13/1959, pg. B-9)
Mary Bridge Children's Hospital (Tacoma);