"At one time, the hospital trained over 75% of east-coast black nurses," said Dr. Sills during the tour guide on Monday. Dr. Sills, a librarian at St. Augustine's University, took a group of students to the historical landmark to see how the hospital still stands. Sills began to talk about Sarah L. Hunter, who found the hospital and was the wife of the fourth president. After their families service to the university and the hospital, they were honored by having a building named after them.
"There were over 125 beds provided for the patients in the hospital," Sills said as he pointed to the windows, "this is also a wood-frame building and built by the male students and staff of the university." He later talk about the nurses training. "The nurses training included learning how to sew, scrubbing, cleaning and cooking." Sills then says there was "no running water" in the building so they had to constantly boil water. There were more than 800 interns and over 600 nurses received a diploma.
With all this information, I thank Mr. Sills for this experience and knowledge about this institution and hospital.
