Description
When the company town was first created, Sugar Land did not have its own medical facilities. Initially, the physician assigned to the Imperial Prison Farm, Dr. Gayle Deatherage, would treat Sugar Land residents if needed. In 1917 Dr. Deatherage established an office on the second floor of the Sugar Land Drug Store and Dr. Blackwell soon joined the practice.
By 1921 Sugar Land was large enough to support medical care for the employees of Imperial Sugar and Sugarland Industries. The Laura Eldridge Hospital Association was established to provide hospitalization and health services.
The location determined for the hospital complex, including separate living quarters for nurses, was the corner of Wood Street and Lakeview Drive. Construction began in 1922 and the hospital was completed in 1923. It was furnished with the latest technical laboratory and operating equipment and staffed full-time by Drs. Blackwell and Deatherage.
Once the hospital opened, Mr. Kempner and Mr. Eldridge instituted an insurance program that funded company medical care. At the cost of $1.50 per month through payroll deduction, each employee could have complete medical coverage for medical and surgical treatment, outpatient services at their doctor’s office, all medication, eyeglasses, artificial limbs, and one year of hospital confinement. Worker’s families could receive treatment at a modest additional cost. The doctors also treated non-employee patients at standard fees and performed considerable charity work.
From 1923 to 1970, Miss Nema Sheppard served as the hospital’s chief nurse and manager, running the hospital, including the doctors. In 1925, Dr. Carlos Slaughter joined the practice, serving Sugar Land admirably until his death in 1981. In 1940, Dr. Harold Kuykendall came to Sugar Land, and he was a partner with Dr. Slaughter in the clinic, which was on Kempner St.
The original hospital served the Sugar Land community for 34 years, but by the 1950s the hospital had become outdated and undersized for the growing community. In 1956, construction began on a new hospital at the northwest corner of Lakeview Dr. and Eldridge Rd. The new Eldridge Memorial Hospital opened in April 1957 and the original hospital was abandoned.
