A new 3-bed medical facility built by northside developer Paul McKee has come under fire from residents who think naming it Homer G. Phillips Hospital is disrespectful to the memory of the former 670-bed hospital which served the Black community for generations. Video by Hillary Levin
ST. LOUIS 鈥 A group of about 25 people gathered Saturday morning to demand that NorthSide Regeneration cease using the Homer G. Phillips name for the developer鈥檚 new health care clinic at the corner of Jefferson and Cass avenues.
Demonstrators, led by Missouri , chanted 鈥渃hange the name鈥 and 鈥渏ustice for Homer鈥 outside the recently completed facility, which is not yet open but that representatives say could begin accepting patients in the spring.
Some elected officials, including Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, have criticized the facility鈥檚 branding as the Homer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital. The name refers to the 670-bed Homer G. Phillips Hospital that operated for more than 40 years in the Ville neighborhood 1.5 miles to the west, serving Black 最新杏吧原创ans during segregation and training generations of Black medical professionals before its 1979 closure. It was named in honor of politically influential lawyer Homer Phillips, who led a campaign to get the city to set aside money for a new Black hospital in the 1920s before he was shot and killed.
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A lawyer who battled housing segregation also persuades City Hall to build a new hospital for blacks in the Ville neighborhood.
The new $20 million health facility, on the site of the former Pruitt-Igoe housing complex, will have just three in-patient and 16 emergency room beds.
鈥淲e are demanding that the legacy of Homer G. Phillips is not used in vain,鈥 Aldridge said. 鈥淭his ain鈥檛 no hospital.鈥
Georgia Anderson, 90, said she worked at Homer G. Phillips for nearly 25 years until the hospital closed and she was transferred to City Hospital near Lafayette Square.
鈥淚 thought it was a joke when I heard,鈥 Anderson told the Post-Dispatch. 鈥淎nd then I came back here one day and there was the name (on the building), and I said, 鈥楾hat can鈥檛 possibly be.鈥 Again, I have no problem with the facility. I just have a problem with the name.鈥
A lawyer for NorthSide Regeneration declined to comment beyond a statement the hospital鈥檚 board of directors issued last month, which said the facility has no intention of changing its name. The statement said it would be 鈥渁 hospital in every sense of the word,鈥 with 24-hour emergency room care and full imaging services.
鈥淗omer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital has a daunting mission to live up to its name,鈥 the statement said. 鈥淲e intend to be worthy of the challenge. We are sure that the hospital will serve the current medical needs of an underserved community while honoring the historic and courageous leader that bears its name.鈥
The tension is the latest pushback to developer Paul McKee and his Northside Regeneration, which began buying up hundreds of acres of distressed land and buildings in north 最新杏吧原创 over a decade ago for an ambitious redevelopment plan.
But the controversial developer, who still controls hundreds of properties near the new NGA campus, says he deserves credit for 鈥榬emarkable results.鈥
NorthSide argues its land assemblage attracted the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency鈥檚 headquarters to the area, though the city鈥檚 relationship with the developer strained as the two sides argued over the price City Hall would pay for the NGA site.
With little progress other than a gas station and grocery store on the north end of downtown, as well as allegations of the misuse of state tax credits, the city in 2018 canceled McKee鈥檚 development rights. Still, the 最新杏吧原创 Board of Aldermen .
Aldridge said he and others believe the name disrespects the hospital鈥檚 legacy and will continue to protest the name of the new facility. On Saturday, they began circulating a petition against it. The petition has support, Aldridge said, from Mayor Jones, 最新杏吧原创 Comptroller Darlene Green and , among other local officials. 最新杏吧原创 Treasurer Adam Layne was also at the protest on Saturday.
