Officially opened on May 17, 1953, Cora Anderson Negro Hospital offered medical services to the growing African American population of Temple and greater Bell County. The hospital featured 16 patient rooms and a surgical suite. It was located only two blocks from Scott & White Hospital and Clinic, thereby providing African American patients access to technology and specialized care that was previously denied to them.
The hospital was administered by a public advisory board comprised of an equal number of African American and white citizens. Final decisions were made by the Scott & White Board of Trustees. U. S. Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson served on the Scott & White Board of Trustees at this time and partook in the fundraising campaign.
Cora Woods Campbell Anderson, the largest individual donor to the campaign, was known community-wide for her commitment to helping out college students and families with financial issues and generously giving to the Negro Hospital Project. The Advisory Board unanimously agreed to name the facility after her.
Once the facility opened, Scott & White physicians provided care, but the nurses and support staff were overwhelmingly African American. The hospital operated until December 1963 when Scott & White moved to integrate facilities at South 31st Street.
In
late 1969, the Bell County Commissioners Court acquired the building. Now called the Cora Anderson Building of the Bell County Health District, the Public Health District runs the facility as an outpatient health clinic, though it preserves the building's original mission of serving the poor and disenfranchised.
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