Hotel Dieu, El Paso

Often mentioned in old newspaper accounts and obituaries is an early regional medical center in El Paso, Texas known as the Hotel Dieu. An injured or critically ill person would sometimes be noted as having been transported to the Hotel Dieu in El Paso for an operation or some other kind of treatment. It might seem to be an unusual name for a medical center, but this El Paso hospital was in business for about one hundred years.

The Hotel Dieu was conceived as a facility to assist the indigent of the area. El Paso had begun to expand in the 1880s after the arrival of the railroads. Other settlers were also attracted to the area by the dry climate, seen as favorable to those suffering from “consumption” which was a name given to pulmonary diseases such as tuberculosis. A local Catholic priest, Reverend Charles Ferrari, pastor of St. Mary’s Chapel, had been approached to solicit the aid of some religious group that might undertake a charitable health project to care of the increasing number of people in need.

A charitable order called Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul agreed to come to El Paso and take on this work. The Daughters of Charity, as the organization is sometimes called, is named for Vincent de Paul, a French priest who lived from 1581 – 1660. Vincent de Paul had dedicated his life to providing services for the poor. He co-founded the organization and is said to have set up kitchens, hospitals, schools and homes for orphans and other charitable activities. The sisters would go where others would not go and serve people who might otherwise not be served. The organization still exists and the name of Vincent de Paul is associated with charitable activities all over the world. DePaul University in Chicago is also named for Vincent de Paul.

Four sisters from the order arrived by train in El Paso in early 1892. Their names were Mary Stella Dempsey, Dolores Sofia Eggert, Genevieve Alice Hennessy and Mary Lee. The Austin Daily Statesman in its issue of July 8, 1892 carried this announcement. “The Hotel Dieu of El Paso, to erect and maintain a hospital in the city of El Paso, at which the members of the association will administer to the sick and afflicted, filed its charter yesterday. The incorporators are Margaret Dempsey, Alice Hennesy and Sophia Eggert, all Sisters of Charity of El Paso.” The sisters quickly went to work. Later that summer, under a headline for El Paso news, the Galveston Daily News in its July 27, 1892 issue stated, “Ground was broken yesterday for the foundation of the Hotel Dieu, to be built by the sisters of charity on north Stanton Street.”

The sisters first set up a hospital in a rented home leased by Father Ferrari. This lasted only a short time before the operation was relocated to another rented home which served for a couple of years until it also became too small for the needs of the facility.

A fundraising campaign was undertaken and with the money raised and indebtedness, the group was able to build the nucleus of this facility, shown below, which dates back to the mid 1890s. The cornerstone was laid in a ceremony on June 10, 1893. It was blessed in a ceremony on a Sunday afternoon by Bishop Edward Fitzgerald of Little Rock, Arkansas. The main building was completed in due course and was formally opened on Thursday, January 25, 1894. They named it Hotel Dieu after their facility in Paris, France. Another wing was added in 1904.

A school for nursing training was established in 1898. It was the first such program in the Southwest. This program continued for many years at Hotel Dieu. The nursing program eventually relocated to another facility separate from the hospital. The formal opening of its own new building was held on June 25, 1926. It is not unusual to read resumes, obituaries and other accounts of nurses who received their training under Hotel Dieu’s program. The nursing school eventually became part of University of Texas at El Paso in 1973.

It ended in a mystery, but the following story reflects on the community work done at Hotel Dieu. An article was posted in the El Paso Times on August 26, 1894. A baby had been found on the door sill of the hospital. The child was unidentified and a note was pinned to its clothing. It read “This child has no father nor mother. It was born July 25. It has not been baptized.” An employee who swept the hall had found the baby. She quickly called Sister Stella Dempsey who took charge and began to see to the baby’s needs. A reporter for the Times had just learned of the disappearance of a baby and contacted the hospital. A local blacksmith named William Rex and come to the newspaper, in great distress. A baby had disappeared from his house. A few weeks earlier a woman had come to his home giving her name as “Maria Pino.” She looked like she was expecting a child at any moment and wanted to rent a furnished room. She had said that she was a widow and had recently been working as a Spanish language teacher in central New Mexico. About a week later, a midwife helped to deliver the baby, a boy.

The reporter added that Rex had expressed dismay that the new mother showed little interest in the child. She had made remarks to the effect that having a baby would interfere with her employment as a teacher and wished that the baby was dead. Rex also told the reporter that about a week after the birth of the child, he was contacted by an older Mexican man, a saddle and harness maker from Las Cruces, who said he was the woman’s stepfather. Within a few days, the man, the woman and the baby all disappeared. Rex feared that the baby had been killed. Rex had reported all this to the local authorities. Statewide papers followed the story for a few days, reporting that the old man had come to the hospital. He was taken into custody by police, questioned and later released since no crime had apparently been committed. Ultimately, the story ended in mystery. “Maria Pino” never resurfaced. The story faded from newspaper coverage. The fate of the baby is unknown other than he was left in the custody of the Sisters of the hospital.

Over the years, the El Paso Times posted articles about memorable events in the timeline of the hospital. Famous Texas Ranger Captain John R. Hughes was reported in April 25, 1901 to have been a patient as he recovered from having been wounded. Doctors recalled when the first x-ray machine was ordered and placed into service. Also noted was the first appendectomy operation in the Southwest was performed in 1894. The patient was a local domestic worker. In 1901, the area’s first female doctor was herself a patient in the hospital. Nurses and doctors recalled that in the old building, the lighting was initially provided by gas lamps and that the primary anesthetic used was chloroform.

The old hospital building served its purpose until around 1950 when fundraising began to construct a new hospital at the old location. In 1953, the new hospital opened. It continued for about thirty-four years until it ceased operations in about 1987.

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