Watch Live Stream Of St. Paul University Hospital's Implosion
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - UT Southwestern Medical Center is scheduled to complete demolition of the former St. Paul University Hospital in the Southwestern Medical District this Sunday at 8 a.m.
The implosion of the he remaining structure at Harry Hines and Inwood Road will last less than 30 seconds; resulting in a dust cloud for all to see before it dissipates.
Police will work the scene to help direct traffic and maintain safe distances. Click here for a detailed list of lane closures.
♦♦♦ 7:45 AM, SUNDAY, NOV. 22,2015 ⇔WATCH THE IMPLOSION ♦♦♦
St. Paul's roots of service date back to 1896, a time when Dallas, with a population of about 37,000, was in desperate need of a new hospital. An agreement was reached in which the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul paid $1 for land purchased by a citizens' group.
The first two trained nurses of the Roman Catholic order traveled by covered wagon some 1,200 miles from Maryland to Texas that June, opening a temporary hospital in 1896 in a cottage on Hall Street to serve patients until the inaugural hospital was built. By November, ground was broken for the original three-story, 110-bed hospital at Hall and Bryan Streets called St. Paul's Sanitarium.
St. Paul quickly became a standard bearer for excellent patient care, known for its devoted caregivers who, for example, risked their own safety to attend to patients during the deadly Spanish flu outbreak in 1918. Hospital staff treated soldiers from Camp Dick, an Army aviation training facility then located at the State Fairgrounds, during the flu epidemic of 1918. As the hospital surpassed its capacity, 45 tents were set up on the lawn to accommodate the overflow.
The dedicated St. Paul caregivers again risked their lives decades later when a five-alarm hospital fire broke out atop the hospital in 1951, grabbing headlines across the country. Caregivers safely and successfully evacuated more than 250 patients and staff, including 30 babies, without any fatalities or major injuries. Believed to have been caused by an overheated pipe, the fire caused $125,000 in damage but did not keep the hospital from reopening less than 24 hours later.
St. Paul contributed a number of firsts to the community. In 1954, St. Paul became the first health care facility in Dallas to give courtesy privileges to African-American physicians to practice in the hospital. In 1956, St. Paul was the first to grant staff status after African-American doctors were able to join the Dallas County Medical Society. The current location opened in 1963.
St. Paul repeatedly distinguished itself by continuously broadening access to its services. It also provided nursing training to more than 1,700 nurses during a 71-year period of the hospital.
Originally called the St. Paul Sanitarium Training School for Nurses, the school was established in 1900, just four years after the hospital opened. It operated until 1971, when the final class of 12 nursing students graduated.
Among other noteworthy firsts, in 1985 St. Paul became the first hospital in Dallas to successfully complete a heart transplant. The hospital became a major center for transplantation and a recognized leader in stroke care and other specialties.
An alliance with UT Southwestern as a teaching referral center in the 1980s prompted a change of the facility's name to St. Paul Medical Center, and through the 1990s notable programs in lung transplantation, a high-risk maternity unit, and surgical intensive care unit evolved in collaboration with UT Southwestern.
In December 2000, UT Southwestern purchased the hospital's physical assets and renamed it St. Paul University Hospital, operated by University Medical Center Inc., the holding company of Zale Lipshy University Hospital. UT Southwestern took operational control of the two hospitals in 2005. As planners prepared for the future, it became clear it wouldn't be feasible – economically or logistically – to renovate the hospital to the degree that would have been necessary to take UT Southwestern to the next level. In late 2014, the time came for a second transition of St. Paul University Hospital's unique continuum of compassionate, service-oriented care to William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, beginning an exciting new chapter for UT Southwestern.
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