The Street Seen: Santa Monica Bay Hospital / St Catherine’s
325 Pacific Street @ 4th
Santa Monica’s first hospital, the Santa Monica Bay Hospital, opened in Ocean Park in 1907, on the North West Corner of Pacific and 4th St.
Up till 1906, Santa Monica did not have public medical facilities. The sick and injured were often nursed at private residences, where doctors would make house calls. After years of planning, the Santa Monica Bay Hospital, organized by Dr. N.H. Hamilton1 and Dr. J.S. Hunt2, opened in 1907. The 25-room, 2-story (over basement) brick building was constructed by H. X. Goetz at a cost of $25,000.
The hospital failed financially in 1910. In 1911, three nurses, the Lowery sisters3 from Chicago, took over the hospital and renamed it St. Catherine’s.
In 1926, St. Catherine’s was (tentatively) purchased (for $250,000) by Pacific Beach Hospital, a group of forty Los Angeles and Santa Monica physicians, surgeons, bankers, and businessmen. By that time, St. Catherine’s included the 1907 main building, an annex, and cottages (nurses’ home). The group planned a new 7-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style building at a cost of $1 MM. The annex and cottages were to be demolished to make way for the new building, and the 1907 main building converted to a nurses’ home. The plan was never implemented - likely due to the perceived competition from the newly opened Santa Monica Hospital4.
St. Catherine’s continued to function as a hospital until 19455, when it was sold - and became Palm Crest Haven - a 27-unit convalescent home. From 1948 to 1949, it was an African-American owned Palm Crest hotel / resort.6
The building sat vacant from 1952 until 1958, when it was demolished to make way for two multi-family residential buildings. The two buildings, constructed in 1959, are identical (mirror image), 21,013 square foot, 2-story structures, each on a 0.5 acre lot with 27 units and 31 bedrooms and 31 bathrooms.
2110 4th St (Club Santa Monica, APN 4289-013-008) last sold in 2000 for $3.16 MM. In 1992, a disputed TORCA conversion application for 2110 4th St was denied by the City Council.
2120 4th St (The West Winds, APN 4289-013-009) last sold in 2000 for $3.30 MM.
Newell Hiram HAMILTON (1852 -1933) was born in Michigan, and spent 16 years as a doctor in North Dakota before coming to Santa Monica for his health in 1893. Dr. Hamilton was a shareholder in the Santa Monica Investment Company.
John Standish HUNT (1865 -1945) was born in Ohio and came to Santa Monica in 1900. A physician and surgeon, Hunt had his offices in the Junipher Building built in 1912 by his father-in-law Alexander A. Junipher. Dr. Hunt was a shareholder in the Santa Monica Investment Company and had extensive real estate investments in Santa Monica and Venice.
The three LOWERY sisters (Catherine, Helen, and Anna Lowery) graduated as nurses from St Josephs Hospital in Chicago. Although the sisters were Catholics, St. Catherine’s was run as a partnership and not as a religious institution. They named the hospital in honor of their mother (who died in 1911). The eldest sister, Catherine T. Lowery, died in 1949. The sisters were successfully sued in 1920 by student nurses who alleged that they were not paid for work they performed as part of their “training.”
Santa Monica’s 2nd hospital, the Santa Monica Hospital, opened in 1926 on Wilshire Blvd at 16th Street. The hospital was a 60-bed facility with three floors, a basement, and a rooftop patio. Two 30-bed wings were added in 1928.
Saint John’s Hospital opened in 1942 on Santa Monica Blvd at 21st Street.
In 1948, Warren C. Vinston, an African American real estate broker & complier of the California Negro Directory obtains a long term lease on the property from Dr Roy Ankenbrand. The PalmCrest Resort Club Inc Board of Directors are Alpha Jackson, Ralph Tucker, P.E. Brooks, Mr. Hughley and Silas White (1905 - 1962). The club closes in 1949.