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The Hilltop Tuberculosis Sanatorium was the answer to Corpus Christi and Nueces County residents in need of a dedicated treatment facility for tuberculosis (TB). Known as consumption, TB dates to antiquity and remains endemic in much of the world. In the 1800s, TB was still at the epidemic level and medicine had no cure to offer sufferers. In the early 1930s, Mrs. Fannie Weil Alexander, the Red Cross chairman of Nueces County, and a group of interested women from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) inaugurated tuberculin testing among the city’s school children, established the Nueces County Tuberculosis Association and convinced the city to hire a public health nurse. The association, with the help of Mrs. H.E. Butt, founded the Nueces County Tuberculosis Clinic on Caldwell St. and employed Elsie Wolle to make house calls. As more cases of TB were found, larger quarters were needed. A site on Leopard St. was acquired with five acres and a small house on a hill. The entire community helped stock the sanatorium with staff, equipment and supplies. Despite community support, the Hilltop Sanatorium continued to suffer from overcrowding and was basically a collection of one-room shacks joined together with screened porches. In 1949, a bond election passed to build a new facility. A new, six-wing hospital with 100 beds opened in May 1953, fully staffed. As more effective treatments became available, patient numbers at Hilltop began to drop. With a free, State TB Hospital in Harlingen, the County closed Hilltop in 1968. Over the years, the former hospital was renovated into community meeting rooms. |
