ST. LOUIS — A group of nurses who worked at the historic Homer G. Phillips Hospital in the Ville neighborhood demonstrated Monday against a new health care facility of nearly the same name.
A newly constructed facility plans to open at Jefferson Avenue and Thomas Street under the name “Homer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital,†part of a project led by developer Paul McKee.
The Homer G. Phillips Nurses’ Alumni Inc. filed a lawsuit last year, arguing that the name violates its trademark and that the developers appropriated the name to “trade on and profit from†the original hospital’s name recognition and goodwill.
Yvonne Jones, president of the alumni association, said the groups met for mediation last month, but the nurses declined to drop the lawsuit.
“We want the name removed from the building,†Jones said.
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The original hospital was named after Homer G. Phillips, an influential attorney who grew up in Sedalia. He campaigned for the city to set aside money for a new hospital to serve Black St. Louisans. In 1931, Phillips was shot and died at the age of 51, and the Board of Aldermen voted to name the hospital in his memory.
The 670-bed hospital opened in the Ville neighborhood in 1937, near Kennerly Avenue and Whittier Street. It served Black residents during segregation, and drew Black doctors and nurses from around the U.S., who at the time had few other options to complete medical training.
Today, the building is home to senior apartments.
The hospital’s closure in 1979 is remembered as a difficult piece of history. Staff said they knew the city was closing the hospital but weren’t told when it would happen. People arrived to work one day to find police there, ready to move patients to another city hospital in south St. Louis.
Carol Horton, a former nurse who worked in surgical areas at Homer G. Phillips, said she was one of the last people in her unit.
“I just walked up and down the empty halls,†Horton said. “I remember how sad I felt, that this had actually happened.â€
In 2019, some community members were angered when they learned of the plans to name the new facility in Carr Square after Homer G. Phillips. The new building is on the site of the former Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex.
Joseph Dulle, an attorney at Stone, Leyton & Gershman who represents the new hospital in the trademark case, said Monday that by adding a full-service health care facility in north St. Louis, his clients believe they are honoring the tradition of Homer G. Phillips, “by doing just what he attempted to do.â€
Operators had previously estimated that they could begin accepting patients by the spring of 2022, but the hospital has yet to open.
An initial inspection is scheduled for later this month, which would be followed by a state inspection, the facility’s operators said in a statement provided by Dulle. Once the facility receives a state license, it would seek Medicare and Medicaid approval and contract with insurance companies.
The alumni group gathered across the street from the facility Monday at an event attended by community members and about 10 former Homer G. Phillips Hospital nurses.
Jones, the alumni group president, said she was born at the hospital in 1947 and could see the building from the back porch of her childhood home in The Ville. She said she used to see the nurses coming out of the dormitories there, in their capes and caps, and think, “That’s what I want to do.â€
Jones graduated from the hospital’s nursing school in 1968 and worked as a pediatric nurse at the hospital until 1977, when she left for Cardinal Glennon.
Former Homer G. Phillips nurse Johnnye Farrell, called the closure “a hardship on the community.â€
Farrell said she graduated from the nursing school in 1968 and worked in the emergency room there until the hospital closed.
“It brings up a lot of anger and emotions,†Farrell said. “It feels like you’re invisible.â€