1920s From Humble Beginnings The Roaring 20s is a time of both prosperity and Prohibition. It’s the Jazz Age, the height of the Harlem Renaissance and the heyday of none other than Al Capone. Flappers are dancing the Charleston, silent films are all the rage and Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic. Insulin is first used to treat diabetes and Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Closer to home, a newly formed Sarasota County separates from Manatee County, and the Florida Land Boom sees the local population grow by 400%.
1924
Sarasota residents begin raising funds to build a community hospital. In the meantime, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System finds its humble beginnings with tents and a five-room bungalow converted into a stop-gap emergency hospital.
1925
Sarasota Hospital opens November 2, 1925, on Hawthorne Street with 32 beds and 12 physicians. It cost $40,000. One of the few registered nurses in Sarasota, Ruth Wilhelm serves as its first superintendent, providing around-the-clock patient care, as well as preparing meals and washing laundry. Superintendent nurses would essentially run the hospital for the first 15 years of its operation.
1927
With the completion of a new annex, the hospital moves into and becomes part of the City of Sarasota. It is renamed Sarasota Municipal Hospital. The two-story, $175,000 expansion increases bed capacity to 60. The on-site Nurses Home expands to accommodate 30 resident nurses.
As the decade comes to an end, the new hospital has been dubbed a “dream of many made possible by the intensive efforts of a few and the generosity of all,” but Black Tuesday signals the beginning of The Great Depression. Difficult times lie ahead for Sarasota and its hospital.