Medical Care in Raleigh

12 Locations | Curated by RHDC

Health care is a major industry in twenty-first century Raleigh, so it is odd to recall that there were no hospitals and few doctors here in the early nineteenth century. White physicians generally saw white patients in their offices or made house calls. Black Raleighites, meanwhile, had very limited access to professional health care.


The need for hospitals surged during the Civil War. Public buildings—and often private ones—were commandeered for the care of wounded soldiers. Dr. Thomas Hill, a Confederate Army surgeon, selected the Peace College Main Building to be a hospital in May 1862. The building had a roof but lacked floors and windows. A frantic month later, it was ready for use.


After the war, the hospital closed but segregated health care persisted. An Episcopal organization opened St. John’s Guild in 1877 to provide care to whites. In 1881, Shaw University opened Leonard Medical School to train African American men. In 1885, Shaw opened Leonard Medical Hospital in a frame building near the school to provide clinical training for its students and care for Raleigh’s black population.


Leonard Hospital, however, was open only during the academic term—which was just five months of the year. In 1892, St. John’s Guild opened a separate ward for blacks. Rex Hospital opened in 1894, also providing care for whites and blacks in different buildings. Wake County, meanwhile, offered welfare services and health care to the poor and homeless; in 1914, a new, Classical Revival-style building was erected on Whitaker Mill Road for the Wake County Home.



The early nineteenth century saw the professionalization of the industry, resulting in upgraded facilities. Shaw built a modern brick building for Leonard Medical Hospital in 1912, and in 1920, another private facility was built for whites, the Mary Elizabeth Hospital. Physicians established offices in downtown buildings like the 1907 Old Masonic Temple Building and the 1924 Odd Fellows Building. Offices in the Professional Building were leased mainly to doctors and dentists when it opened in 1924.


Black physicians and dentists rented office space mainly on E. Hargett Street. Dr. Manassa T. Pope, one of the first graduates of Leonard Medical School, had an office first on Fayetteville Street and later on E. Hargett Street. In 1900, he built his family home and equipped it with a small office for his practice. The small medical office remains intact at the Dr. M.T. Pope House. Dr. Lemuel Delany, another Leonard graduate, was the first black surgeon at St. Agnes Hospital, established in 1909 at St. Augustine’s College. He also built the Delany Building on E. Hargett Street in 1926, leasing space to groups working to benefit the African American community.


Many more medical facilities have been built across Raleigh since the first quarter of the twentieth century. The survival of these historic and notably small-scale buildings, however, is striking in comparison to the large complexes we visit for medical services today.

The 1881 Leonard Medical School is a nice—if not entirely intact—example of the Romanesque Revival style. Its primary significance, however, lies in its connection to the medical education provided by Shaw University to black male students in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.…
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Leonard Medical Hospital was erected in 1912 to support the neighboring Leonard Medical School in the education of black physicians at Shaw University. The hospital initially opened in an 1885 frame building behind the medical school. It provided much-needed health care for Raleigh’s black…
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Charles E. Hartage designed this building in a symmetrical Classical Revival style. The two-story, E-plan, brick structure with a central entrance pavilion features a colossal wooden portico with Tuscan-columns. Hartage was also the architect for Smedes Hall renovations and Pittman Hall at Saint…
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Mary Elizabeth Hospital, established in 1914 as Raleigh's first private hospital, erected this building in 1920 to house forty-nine beds in a modern facility. Designed by hospital founder Dr. Harold Glascock, the building met the established standards for small general hospitals. Its Colonial…
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The Medical Arts Building, attributed to prolific Raleigh architect F. Carter Williams, is an International Style office building with a steel frame, glass curtain walls, brick cladding, and a flat roof. The building reflects the growth of the Mary Elizabeth Hospital, with which it is associated.…
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Charles McMillan designed the Masonic Temple building, Raleigh's oldest surviving steel-reinforced concrete structure, in the Sullivanesque-style. In addition to its design and construction, the building is significant as a major landmark in the downtown area. Date: 1907
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One of downtown Raleigh's few remaining early twentieth-century skyscrapers, this ten-story building designed by the Atlanta architectural firm of G. Lloyd Preacher and Company is Raleigh's first 1920s tall office building. It is brick-veneered with classical detailing, some of which is…
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This eight-story brick-veneered commercial building with classical detailing is an example of early twentieth century high-rise design. The building's shaft rises from a rusticated base and is crowned by a cornice comprising the entire top floor. The division of the building's facades…
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The Dr. M.T. Pope House is the last structure in its original location illustrating the presence of a middle and professional class of African-American families along South Wilmington Street. Dr. Pope was a politically active and well-known African American physician and Trustee of Shaw University…
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Fire severely damaged the original 1895 building, which housed a nurse training center. Under the direction of Rev. Henry Beard Delany, the first African American Episcopal bishop in North Carolina, students quarried the stone and started the current building in 1905.
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The Delany Building is one of only two remaining commercial structures built on Raleigh's "Black Main Street" before World War II. Builder Dr. Lemuel T. Delany, the first black surgeon practicing at Saint Agnes Hospital and son of the first African American bishop of the Episcopal…
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