1890
|
|
Mother Michael Cummings and Sister Alphonsus Cox arrive in
San
Diego and establish the community’s first hospital on the corner of
Sixth
Avenue and H (now Market) Street. With only $50 between them,
they opened
the five-bed St. Joseph’s Dispensary. Within hours after opening they
received
their first patient, a malaria victim named John O’Connell.
|
1891
|
|
The Sisters move to new three-story, nineteen-bed hospital on
ten-acre
site at Eighth and University avenues.
|
1903
|
|
St. Joseph’s Training School for Nurses opens,
graduating
their first ten students on May 31, 1906.
|
1904
|
|
Hospital grounds expand along the north side of University Avenue.
The
total number of beds grows to 220.
|
1924
|
|
St. Joseph’s moves to a six-story building at the
present location at Fifth and Washington. The new facilities are named
Mercy Hospital
and Mercy School of Nursing.
|
1925-1946
|
|
John D. Spreckles bequeaths $300,000 allowing
the hospital to increase capacity to 325 beds — making it the city’s
largest
public hospital.
|
1966
|
|
The eleven-story hospital building opens north
of
Washington Street. The original hospital is mostly razed. One tall
elevator
shaft is retained connecting the east entrance to clinics and the new
hospital.
The upper area of the elevator shaft remains unused.
|
1970
|
|
Mercy Hospital becomes San Diego’s first
paramedic
base station.
|
1995
|
|
Mercy Hospital joins with Scripps Health but
retains
a connection with Sisters of Mercy.
|
2002
|
|
US News & World Report names Scripps
Mercy one of the top 50 US hospitals for senior health care. Fit
Pregnancy
magazine says Mercy is one of top US hospitals in which to have a baby.
|
2004
|
|
The building which is now the
new home of Scripps Mercy Surgery Pavilion at Fifth and
Washington is completely remodeled. |
