Juneteenth 2026 will mark the a hundredth anniversary of the historic Riverside Hospital’s founding.
And although the town of Houston, particularly its Black neighborhood, has each proper to experience nostalgia and go down tales of Riverside’s previous, the long run could maintain a narrative equally compelling. And essential.
On Juneteenth 1926, almost 100 years in the past, the hospital was devoted because the Houston Negro Hospital.
Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Elli famous that 100 years in the past, Black physicians had been barred from working in “white” hospitals and Black sufferers had been commonly denied care or acquired grossly insufficient care inside “Negro Wards” of Houston’s hospitals.
“[Riverside] grew to become one of many few locations the place households may flip. It operated below segregation and with restricted sources, however it offered well being care and educated generations of medical professionals who served the town,” stated Ellis.
On June 19 of this 12 months, the county will mark 100 years to the day that dedication came about.
“Healthcare is a human proper in my judgment. It mustn’t depend upon earnings, neighborhood, or race.”
Rodney Ellis, Harris County Commissioner, Precinct One
“Healthcare is a human proper in my judgment,” Ellis stated. “It mustn’t depend upon earnings, neighborhood, or race.”
From shuttered hospital to well being hub
Buzz about Riverside’s renovation has been an on-again, off-again actuality for years.
Riverside closed in 2015 after critical monetary challenges.
“There have been stops, and there have been begins and actual uncertainty about its future,” Ellis recalled.
In 2018, the Harris County Commissioners Courtroom accredited the acquisition of the campus so it may as soon as once more serve underserved communities. Earlier than and after that acquisition, a number of plans for the property had been floated, however none materialized. Till the present transfer to repurpose the house as a well being hub.
The mission has drawn broad assist. The Houston Endowment offered $7 million. The Qatar Harvey Fund contributed $2.5 million from the $30 million it dedicated to the area after Hurricane Harvey. The U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement offered $750,000 secured by the late Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Greater than $40 million has already been invested within the restoration of this mission,” Ellis stated. “When full, there can be over $200 million within the revitalization mission.”
The work will unfold in two phases. Part one — set to be accomplished by late spring and open to the general public on Juneteenth 2026 — restores Riverside’s three historic buildings: The hospital, nursing faculty, and utility constructing. The purpose is to protect the legacy whereas modernizing the buildings to assist healthcare companies, neighborhood applications, and public well being initiatives.
Part two, projected at roughly $160 million and slated for completion by December 2028, will assemble a brand new four-story headquarters for Harris County Public Well being (HCPH).
However Riverside won’t be a reopened Third Ward hospital. As a substitute, the advanced has been dubbed the Riverside Well being Hub — residence to a number of Harris County Precinct One applications, health-related and past.
“This website has at all times been about management, illustration, and belief,” stated Leah Barton, HCPH government director. “I’m proud to say that these qualities will endure as these doorways reopen to the neighborhood.”
On the primary ground, residents can have entry to vaccinations, dental care, HIV and STI screenings, and heat handoffs to psychological well being companies by HCPH’s Group Well being and Wellness Division.
The second ground will home a continual illness prevention program centered on diabetes prevention and long-term wellness.
“And on the third ground, our outreach workforce … will join folks to HCPH applications, companies, and neighborhood sources,” Barton stated.
The workforce anticipates shifting in by late spring, with companies opening shortly thereafter.
“Our presence right here shouldn’t be solely about well being companies,” Barton added. “It’s about being a trusted associate and useful resource. It’s about respiration new life right into a historic gem and guaranteeing that everybody on this county has the chance to realize their full potential for well being and well-being.”
With rooms too small by fashionable hospital requirements, Riverside is about for its second act as a healthcare hub. The previous laundry room is being refitted to host neighborhood occasions. The primary ground of the outdated nursing faculty will home a industrial kitchen. Its second ground will present convention house and huge assembly rooms, based on HCPH’s Dr. Kimberly Henderson.
“This can be a strategic funding to strengthen preventative care and scale back well being disparities,” Ellis stated. “We’re restoring historical past whereas constructing lasting public infrastructure. A ribbon-cutting marks progress, not completion.”
The restoration was led by structure corporations Kirksey and Harrison Kornberg. Nicola Springer, associate and managing director of Kirksey’s PK-12 follow, referred to as the mission “a labor of affection.”
“After we obtained to those buildings, they had been in nice disrepair,” Springer stated. “This can be a enormous a part of the Third Ward, the Houston neighborhood, and African American historical past in the whole United States.”
Historical past reflecting ahead
Within the 1910s and Twenties, Black demise charges in Houston had been double these of white residents, based on reporting by the Houston Informer. Black Houstonians paid taxes however couldn’t totally use the town hospitals their {dollars} helped fund.
“We had 50,000 Black residents on the time,” stated Harris County Decide Lina Hidalgo. “They’d very a lot subpar care in white hospitals, and for probably the most half would favor to remain residence slightly than be handled the way in which they had been handled there.”
In 1918, oilman John S. Cullinan, founding father of Texaco, donated $80,000 — about $1.7 million immediately — to construct the unique hospital. In his will, he left $524,496.57 in belief for upkeep, roughly $11.8 million immediately. Ellis stated Cullinan would have been the Ken Lay or the Kinder of his day.
“He compelled the town of Houston to donate the whole block to a not-for-profit to create this hospital,” Ellis stated. “It makes a profound assertion … that African-People needed to battle on this nation for a really very long time, however we didn’t get to the place we obtained to alone.”
Cullinan endured criticism from white friends however stood his floor. At its founding, Riverside had an all-Black board and workers throughout an period of intense racial discrimination. Past care, it grew to become a coaching floor for generations of Black healthcare employees, detailed in Carlton Houston’s forthcoming guide Houston Negro Hospital: The Untold Legacy of Riverside Normal.
Houston’s grandfather, Dr. William M. Drake, was one in all Riverside’s prime surgeons.
John Arcidiacono, Cullinan’s great-great-grandson, stated the household is happy with that legacy, however clear-eyed in regards to the current.
“That was 100 years in the past,” Arcidiacono stated. “The problem is that immediately, there are nonetheless disparities in well being. The life expectancy distinction in Houston is about 20 years, relying on what zip code you reside in. That’s horrifying. Properties like this … are gonna hopefully assist folks within the neighborhood and scale back that disparity.”
Collaborative resurrection
Ann B. Stern, president and CEO of Houston Endowment, stated the mission succeeded as a result of the neighborhood by no means gave up.
“Riverside wasn’t only a constructing,” Stern stated. “It was the place folks had been born … the place Black physicians had been capable of follow throughout segregation. And when the hospital closed, it left a big gap — sure, a gap in entry to care, but additionally a gap within the historical past and identification of this neighborhood.”
“The work … wasn’t simple, and it actually wasn’t fast,” she added. “We listened first, after which introduced versatile sources … serving to transfer Riverside out of chapter and into Harris County’s very succesful arms.”
Riverside started in a time of exclusion. As Ellis put it: “At the moment it stands as a dedication to fairness and entry to generations to return.”
