St. Joseph's Hospital

69 West Exchange Street
St. Paul MN 55102
651/232-3000

St. Joseph's Hospital is Minnesota's first hospital and was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1853. Located in downtown St. Paul, it is the largest of the HealthEast hospitals with 401 licensed beds. The hospital has a 24 hour emergency room and provides a comprehensive range of medical, surgical, diagnostic, and rehabilitative services, as well as mental health and chemical dependency treatment programs. State-of-the-art heart care has been a mainstay of the hospital's care delivery for generations of Twin Citians.

The hospital is a member of the University of Minnesota's Family Medicine and Community Health residency program and is Medicare certified.

• Sara Criger, CEO, St. Joseph's Hospital

Mission
Rooted in Judeo-Christian values, our mission is high quality, compassionate, cost effective health care for the communities we serve

Vision
Creating the best health care experience through a passion for caring and service.

Goal
We are the first choice for customers, physicians and employees.

Historic timeline - St. Joseph's Hospital
Part I 1650 - 1853

1650
The Sisters of St. Joseph, the first women's non-cloistered community, is founded in Le Puy, France.

1790s
The French Revolution's "Reign of Terror" suppresses religious worship in France, thereby suspending the works of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

1807
Joseph Cardinal Fesch re-establishes the Sisters of St. Joseph in his Lyon diocese.

1836
Mother St. John Forbonne dispatches the first group of sisters to America. After a 49-day sea voyage, the sisters settle in the village of Carondelet, Missouri, just outside St. Louis.

1841
Father Lucien Galtier builds a log cabin chapel in the pioneer village that would become St. Paul. He describes the chapel as "a poor log church that would well remind one of the stable at Bethlehem."

"The rude chapel, 25 feet in length, 18 feet in width and 10 feet high, had two windows, one on each side, and faced the river. Expenditures in labor value did not exceed $75.00." - Father Galtier

1847
Another pioneer priest, Monsignor Augustine Ravoux, builds an 18- by 20-foot addition to the original chapel.

1849
Minnesota is declared an organized territory. At the time, there are fewer than 6,000 residents. That same year, the Minnesota Pioneer publishes its first newspaper.

The territory of Minnesota, 1849

1851
Bishop Joseph Cretin, the first bishop of the Minnesota Territory, arrives in St. Paul on July 2. He'd been consecrated bishop in Belley, France just five months earlier.

"The coming of the bishop to this place was hailed with considerable enthusiasm by our fellow Catholic citizens. In the evening large numbers assembled in the log cabin chapel on the bluff to see him and hear his voice."-Minnesota Democrat, July 8, 1851

Bishop Joseph Cretin

After an appeal from Bishop Cretin, four Sisters of St. Joseph volunteer to travel up the Mississippi from Carondelet, Missouri to teach the children of St. Paul's settlers and Indians. These pioneering women were Mother St. John Fournier, Sister Francis Joseph Ivory, Sister Philomena Vilaine and Sister Scholastica Vasques.

On November 10, just one week after the sisters arrive, the log cabin becomes a school to its first students. Among the 14 girls are the niece of the respected Protestant settler Henry Rice and the daughter of the Indian agent Major Fridley.

Henry Rice

1852
Cholera, a highly contagious disease caused by bacteria in the Mississippi River, begins to infect the residents of St. Paul. The local papers are reluctant to report the outbreak for ear of discouraging settlement.

Recognizing the community's obvious need, Bishop Cretin donates his family inheritance of 10,000 francs to build a hospital. Two men step forward to help: Henry Rice, a prominent Protestant layman, offers a plot of land, and White Cloud, a Chippewa Indian chief, donates lumber.

Chief White Cloud

1853
The cholera outbreak reaches epidemic proportions. With the new hospital still under construction, the four sister-teachers become sister-nurses overnight, transforming the log cabin school into the town's first hospital. St. Joseph's Hospital is born.

Historic timeline - St. Joseph's Hospital
Part II 1854-1893

1854
In March, St. Paul is incorporated as a city. Later that year, President Millard Fillmore leads a flotilla of four steamboats up the Mississippi River in a spectacular tourist attraction that comes to be known as The Grand Excursion.

President Millard Fillmore

On September 20, Bishop Cretin blesses the new 3 1/2-story stone hospital, located on the same ground where the present-day St. Joseph's still stands.

"The hospital building was clean and orderly and boasted a bathroom on every floor. Private patients paid $8 a week for their room, food, medicine and physician and nursing care, but these patients were in the minority… The average citizen preferred to remain at home when ill." - Sesquicentennial: 150 Years of Caring at St. Joseph's Hospital

Downtown St. Paul in 1860, showing St. Joseph's stone building (1854-1894)

1857
Bishop Cretin dies on February 22, six years after coming to his pioneer diocese of St. Paul.

1858
On May 11, Minnesota is admitted into the Union as the 32nd state.

Minnesota's first state flag

1860
Census records show a soaring population in the Minnesota Territory. In one decade, the number of residents has grown from 6,077 to 172,023.

1862
Minnesota's long-anticipated first railroad line begins operation. The railway eventually connects the state with the eastern and southern parts of the United States.

The William Crooks travels on
Minnesota's first railroad line, 1862

Congress passes the Homestead Act, which offers 160-acre parcels of free land to families who settle and farm the land for five years. In just three years, the act brings 75,000 people to Minnesota.

Homestead Act settlement

1866
A second deadly cholera epidemic grips St. Paul, causing widespread panic. Neighbors threaten to burn down St. Joseph's Hospital if cholera patients are admitted, but St. Joseph's doctors and sisters stand up to the threats and continue their ministry of caring for the sick, regardless of their circumstances.

1870
A group of local physicians pool their resources to form the St. Paul School of Medical Instruction across from St. Joseph's on 9th Street. The school stays open until 1879 and is later replaced by the St. Paul Medical School (1885-88).

1876
The Sisters of St. Joseph prepare to expand their health care ministry through acts of charity.

"It is the intention of the managers (of St. Joseph's Hospital) if the funds accumulate to make this charity second to none of its kind in the west. Next spring two Sisters will be detailed to visit the sick and suffering at their residences and administer relief and medicine to them. At present they have not the funds for this purpose."
- St. Paul Dispatch, December 29, 1876

1882
A smallpox outbreak reaches St. Paul. St. Joseph's Hospital is a leader in practicing vaccination to successfully prevent the spread of this virulent disease.

1883
Records show that seven women are licensed as physicians in Minnesota.

1884
Sister Bernadine Maher ushers in a new era - and a new century - when she's appointed superior and superintendent of St. Joseph's Hospital.

Sister Bernadine Maher

1885
St. Joseph's gets its first medical intern, an orthopedist whose name is now famous: Arthur A. Gillette, MD. In 1897, Dr. Gillette conceives the idea for the Gillette Hospital for Crippled Children, the first institution of its kind in the U.S.

1886
On September 24, Dr. Justus Ohage performs America's first successful gallbladder removal in St. Joseph's operating room. It's only the ninth such operation ever attempted in the world.

Dr. Justus Ohage

1893
Sister Elizabeth McGolrick receives her pharmacist's license, making her St. Joseph's first official druggist.

Historic timeline - St. Joseph's Hospital
Part III 1894-1971

1894
In February, St. Joseph's opens one of the first nursing schools in the Northwest. Co- founded by Sister Bernadine Maher and Dr. Harry O'Brien, the school is open to students of all faiths.

1895
St. Joseph's procures its first ambulance through proceeds from a "phonograph concert" held at Cretin Hall.

Ambulance in front of the 1895 hospital

Sister Bernadine Maher determines that the hospital has outgrown its 1854 stone building and makes plans for a new wing to be opened in December.

"It will be five stories high, built of pressed brick, fireproof throughout, and provided with an elevator. It will comprise offices, parlors, private rooms, one large amphitheatre for instruction of medical students, etc., and the other for treatment of cases requiring abdominal surgery. The cost of this building will be $75,000."
- St. Joseph's Hospital's 1895-96 annual report

1896
In June, St. Joseph's Hospital graduates its first class of nurses. Sixteen women receive their diplomas; ten of them are nuns.

St. Joseph's Hospital, 1895

St. Joseph's surgical records show 261 surgeries performed. Of that number, 206 are listed as "cured," 25 "improved" and 11 as "did not improve." Only 19 patients died.

St. Joseph's operating room, 1896

1897
St. Joseph's annual report shows that the hospital admitted 1,086 patients in its first year in the new building, 340 of whom are "charity patients."

1899
On June 13, a grim dispatch reaches St. Paul: 175 are dead and 400 wounded after a tornado rips through New Richmond, Wisconsin. St. Joseph's sends six nurses on a relief train carrying cots and supplies. When the wounded return on the train, the hospital's horse-drawn ambulance is waiting at the station.

1900
Dr. Justus Ohage presents the city of St. Paul with 50 wooded acres on the east side of the Mississippi River. That parcel of land is still known to this day as Harriet Island.

Attitudes about maternity care start changing around the turn of the century. In the 1800s, most babies are delivered at home, usually assisted by the pregnant woman's mother. Between 1854 and 1900, only about 460 babies are born at St. Joseph's Hospital. Between 1900 and 1921, the number jumps to 2,577.

1902
Dr. James Ferguson, an intern fresh from the University of Minnesota, begins the hospital's first clinical laboratory under a stairway. Equipped with a microscope, a microtome and a homemade ether atomizer, Dr. Ferguson performs urine analysis and tumor and tissue sectioning in a tiny three- by six-foot space.

St. Joseph's first x-ray machine is installed at the instigation of Dr. Arthur Miller. It's just seven years after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray.

X-ray image of a human skull

1903
Dr. Arnold Schwyzer makes medical history at St. Joseph's by performing what appears to be America's first bronchoscopy.

1904
At the St. Louis World's Fair, St. Paul is declared the healthiest city in the world - a distinction that earns Dr. Justus Ohage a medal.

1905
Staff physician Dr. Fred Plondke introduces the use of spinal anesthesia using the drug Stovain.

1915
The Catholic Health Association (CHA) is formed to raise standards for hospital care.

1916
Victor Holmes, a colorful and well-loved orderly and ambulance driver, becomes the hospital's first groundskeeper. He loves the job so much, he stays with it for the next 30 years.

1919
St. Joseph's establishes its first official maternity ward on the third floor of the main wing. The new specialized unit comes 23 years after the first obstetrician joined the medical staff.

1920
Sister Jerome McCarthy is named superintendent of nurses, a position she holds with efficiency, patience and understanding for 23 years. During her tenure, she instills in her staff her definition of a good nurse: "a person who is gentle and generous with her time and energy."

Sister Grace Aurelia Green is named St. Joseph's new superior and administrator, succeeding Sister Bernadine Maher's 36-year tenure. Sister Grace Aurelia's first task is to plan and guide the hospital's newest expansion project: a 110-bed north wing.

1922
On September 22, the hospital holds a "house warming" for its new north wing, built at a cost of $460,000. The new wing has a large chapel, a bathroom in every patient room, solarium space and equipment for the rapidly growing radiology department.

1926
A nurses' residence is erected at a cost of $250,000. The new building provides a private room and ample accommodations for each of the nursing school's 200+ students.

1935
Records show that St. Joseph's treats more than 6,000 patients and performs more than 24,000 laboratory tests and 2,000 x-rays.

1941
As the U.S. enters World War II, Sister St. Ignatius Morrow takes the helm at St. Joseph's Hospital.

1942
A nursery for premature babies is added to the Obstetrical Department to help reduce infant mortality and infection.

St. Joseph's establishes a plasma bank in the laboratory to aid in treating shock cases following surgery and miscarriage.

1947
America celebrates Japan's surrender, signaling the end of World War II. Over the course of the war, some 326,000 Minnesotans served in uniform. More than 6,000 never returned home.

Minnesotans rejoice at the end of WWII

1948
St. Joseph's establishes the Twin Cities' first post-anesthesia room under the direction of Dr. James H. Crowley.

A deadly throat disease, laryngo-tracheo-bronchitis, descends on the Midwest. Infants who contract it typically die within an hour. With oxygen tents in short supply, Dr. Jerome Hilger and the St. Joseph's nursing staff improvise using an ordinary garment bag. Not one child is lost from the disease at St. Joseph's.

1949
St. Joseph's opens an outpatient clinic to serve ambulatory patients who are unable to pay for private medical care. The clinic is organized in six divisions: diagnostic; medical; cardiac; orthopedic; OB/GYN; and eye, ear, nose and throat.

1950
Sister Antonius Kennelly is named the hospital's superior and administrator. She comes to the job after six years as president of the College of St. Catherine.

(Sister Antonius Kennelly, administrator 1950-56)

1953
Sister Antonius organizes a small group of women to plan a dinner dance to raise money for the hospital's centennial celebration. Their efforts raise $6,100. Later, the group is officially organized as the St. Joseph's Hospital Women's Auxiliary.

On May 16 and 17, the hospital celebrates its first 100 years. Among the festivities are addresses by two Nobel laureates, Sir Alexander Fleming (who discovered penicillin) and Dr. Philip Hench (who discovered cortisone). The occasion is also observed with a Mass and sermon by Archbishop John Gregory Murray at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

(Centennial logo, 1953)

1953
Throughout May, congratulatory messages arrive from all over the world, including from President Dwight Eisenhower and Archbishop Montioni, pro-secretary of the Vatican.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

1955
In October, St. Joseph's convenes the first meeting of the Lay Advisory Board. With Frank Anderson as president, the board becomes the nucleus of the Hospital Building Fund Committee. The project is a resounding success: more than $2.3 million is pledged with help from Archbishop John Gregory Murray and more than 6,000 volunteers.

The St. Paul firm of Ellerbe Architects is selected to design the new hospital building and Standard Construction of Minneapolis succeeds in submitting the lowest bid of under $5 million.

1956
In August, Sister Marie de Paul Rochester succeeds Sister Antonius as superior and administrator.

1958
In May, St. Joseph's breaks ground for the new hospital to be named after Archbishop John Gregory Murray.

1960
In June, the five-story cross-shaped John Gregory Murray ("JGM") building is dedicated. The new structure is adorned with a 22-foot-tall copper cross depicting the seven Corporal Works of Mercy. The cross still appears today outside the hospital's main entrance.

(Works of Mercy cross)

On July 2, the JGM building formally opens, increasing St. Joseph's bed capacity from 273 to 428, which includes a 44-bed psychiatric unit and a 56-bed maternity department.

(First Christmas at the new JGM building at St. Joseph's Hospital)

1965
Medicare becomes a major insurer when the U.S. government enacts a health care program for citizens over 65.

1966
With I-35E under construction and a growing number of patients and employees, St. Joseph's faces its parking dilemma by opening a 500-car parking ramp on 10th Street.

1971
The Lay Advisory Board evolves into St. Joseph's Board of Trustees. Board members include several St. Paul business leaders, a state senator, a doctor and ten Sisters of St. Joseph.