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One of the most prominent hospital facilities established in Houston after the Civil War was the Houston Infirmary, founded in 1874 by two young physicians, Dr. David Finney Stuart and Dr. Joshua Larendon. These two former Confederate Army surgeons were soon joined in their practice by Dr. Thomas Joel Boyles. The infirmary played a prominent role in the organization of medical care for the many railroad companies that established operations in Houston during the 1870s and 1880s. Drs. Stuart, Larendon and Boyles operated the hospital for more than a decade before recruiting additional medical specialists to join the hospital staff. Three of the added physicians were relatives—Dr. James Boyles, a nephew of Dr. Thomas Boyles, joined the staff in 1885; Dr. Samuel Clark Red, a nephew of Dr. David Stuart, began work at the infirmary in 1887; and Dr. Joseph R. Stuart, son of Dr. David Stuart, began his career at the infirmary after completing medical school in 1890. The Houston Infirmary was first located on the north side of the Houston and Texas Central Railway tracks and west of Oliver St., but was relocated to a two-story frame building on the northwest corner of Washington Ave. and 10th (now Elder St.) In 1883. The segregated hospital contained a separate building for African American patients, and a ward for Hispanic patients was added by 1907. The establishment of a separate hospital for the Southern Pacific Railway in 1911 and the death of Dr. Joseph R. Stuart in 1913 contributed to the closure of the Houston Infirmary in 1913, after nearly forty years of service to the city of Houston. |
