Archive for the ‘Old Sacred Heart Hospital’ Category
Twelfth Avenue Fire …
On Sunday August 17, 1975, a fire destroyed this entire block. It was a Sunday morning around 11:00 when it started in the freezer of Exotic Florist. There was an electrical short in the wiring of the freezer that held Exotic’s flowers. This building was built sometime in the early 1950’s and the building code did not require fire walls between the offices … since there was no fire wall, all of the units shared a common attic. Once the fire got into the attic, it was just a short time until all of the businesses where consumed in fire. My father happened to be there at the time and was able to grab a few cameras and save them, but everything else in his studio was completely destroyed. The following is a photographic story of the fire, the aftermath and the rebuilding of the block. There are a lot of photos and they really need no explanation, so I won’t bother you with any …
I tried to enter the photographs in some type of sequence starting down at Exotic Florist and then moving north up 12th Avenue through the rest of the businesses. The entire fire from start to finish only took an hour or so. The firemen did an excellent job in getting the fire out and luckily they were able to save the Winn-Dixie grocery store. Now the next photograph is the clean-up several days later …
There was an alley between the grocery store and the building that burned, so I am sure that was the reason that Winn-Dixie did not burn. But it did have smoke and some water damage. The above photo was taken the following week and I am not sure of the date. The Moulton’s owned the property and cleaned up the damage within a week or so. Now, the next images are of the new building that was built within six months of the fire …
The aerial photograph is one that I made years later, but I thought that it added something to the rest of the images. The only businesses that went back in were Dr. Hoyt, Fischler Framing and my father. This new building was completed by February 1976. He had moved across the street to a vacant building on Gonzalez Street and this is where he had started his business in 1948. There are several other photos that I might throw up later, but this is the majority of the images that I have collected / found through the years. The Pensacola News Journal did an article on my father and the fire, but I do not know if I am allowed to publish the photos and the write-up, with copyright laws and such. Speaking of which, there is a local hospital that has been using my photos in their centennial advertisements without my permission or compensation, but that is a whole other story. Thanks for looking and please check back. Also, if anyone remembers the fire and happened to around when the fire started, I would like to hear from you … Frank. I will leave you with one more view across the parking lot looking North.
A Few More From The Old Sacred Heart Hospital …
Here is a doctor and his patient discussing his upcoming surgery. Or that is what it looks like to me. I wonder when the doctor’s stopped using / wearing those things around their head to look into your throat or whatever part of your body that they were examining. In fact, I hope someone out there can tell us what the name of that thing is that the doctor is wearing and what it’s purpose actually is. I have often wondered what those things are called when I watch an old movie from the 1930’s or 40’s and you see the doctor wearing one. Next is a couple of patients sitting outside in their wheelchairs …
This was taken on the south side of the hospital where the emergency rooms entrance was located. I have to say that these wheelchairs look to be some of the first one’s ever designed and built. That is all I have for today. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Boy Blowing Bubbles in the Backseat …
Ok, Ok … I made a mistake on the last ” Boy Blowing Bubbles ” image and I did scan it backwards. I thought that it was sort of interesting that someone was driving an auto brought over from England since the steering wheel was located on the right side. However, after Rusty noticed it and said that the image was backward, I went back and rescanned it correctly and worked it up. I also did another negative that was in the envelope that I did not bother working up and posting earlier. The detail in the car’s body is more interesting than the bubbles that the boy is blowing, which do not really show up all that well. The car is parked on DeSoto Street in front of the offices on the side. My father’s first studio was located here before he moved across the street to 12th Avenue, so this was made in the late 1940’s. Next is another view straight on of the boy blowing bubbles and you see the north side of the old Sacred Heart Hospital in the background …
I do not know the make or model of the automobile, but it looks like it is brand new or it had just been washed and waxed. As mentioned in the earlier post, I have no idea who this boy is but some of you out there might recognize the boy. Thanks for looking and keeping me straight … if you ever notice a glaring mistake like I had made earlier, please let me know … Frank
Nurses At Sacred Heart Hospital In The 1940’s …
Staying in the 1940’s, I scanned some prints that my father had made at the old Sacred Heart Hospital. The three that I am posting are ones that I just scanned in the past several days … mostly because they did not require too much Photoshop work to get ready to put up on this site. This first one has always been interesting to me and for some reason or another I have just never gotten around to scan it. The next is a group of nurses on the steps out front of the hospital …
Note all of the ivy on the walls out front of the hospital and also notice the round globe lights … I do not think that I have seen these before, maybe I have but I just do not recall at the moment. The last one is of the nurses in the nursery with a newborn …
Notice the ” S C ” on the nurses pocket that stands for ” Sister’s of Charity “, the order that ran the hospital. I wish I had more information to share with you about these images, but maybe someone out there might recognize some of the nurses in these photos and know something to share with us. I will say that these images from the 1940’s and earlier are all prints that I scan … that accounts for the color of the images, which I think is interesting. I could take the color out in Photoshop, but for some reason I like the color and tone of the images. I will not necessarily that they have aged this color as much as I believe some where printed on a ” warm ” tone paper. The images that are more black and white might have been printed on a ” cold ” tone paper. Thanks for looking and if you know anything about any of these images, please feel free to comment. Thanks for looking … Frank
Nurses Out Front Of Sacred Heart Hospital 1940’s …
These two nurses are standing out front on the lawn of the old Sacred Heart Hospital …in the background to the left you see the base of the marble stairs. As usual, I have no clue who these young ladies are. I have had this photo lying around for years and have just never posted it for some unknown reason. If anyone has a clue who these nurses are, please feel free to share it with us. Thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Sacred Heart Hospital Nurses From The 1940’s …
No names, I just thought that this was just a nice photo of a nurse out front on the steps of the Old Sacred Heart Hospital. I had scanned 30 or 40 images from the 1940’s at the hospital back in February, but just never got around to doing anything with them. So, I thought that I would post a few of them now and see if anyone might recognize any of the girls or maybe the nuns. Here is another …
Some type of luncheon or dinner, you decide. Here is one more of some type of presentation …
The nurse on the left side of the image is one that keeps showing up in some of the images, but I do not know who she is. She just has a very familiar face for some reason or another, this was at least ten years before I was born so she would not have been someone that I would have known. This is all of these that I am going to post now, I will save more for later posts. If any of you nurses from the 1940’s recognize any of these girls, please let us hear from you. Thanks again for looking and please check back … Frank
The Maternity Ward at the Old Sacred Heart Hospital …
This photo of my mother and I was made on 14 Aug 53, I was born on 11 Aug 14, so I was 3 days old in this photo. This is the type of photo my father would take of the mother and her new born baby and would sell it to the mother or her family. I posted a folder in a much earlier post that he would insert this photo in … it has a photo of the front steps of the old hospital on the cover. So, he had a fairly lucrative photography ” side-business ” at the hospital while he was the x-ray technician. The next photo shows one of the nuns and several nurses standing around the bed talking to my mother and looking at me ..
Now, looking at this photo, you get the impression that they were in my mother’s room standing around talking and enjoying themselves. Well, back then, there was no such thing as a ” private ” room ,,, you were in a ward with other mother’s and their babies. The next photo shows after everyone had left …
Yes, that is another mother and her baby separated by a cloth curtain. I wish I knew who this mother and her baby are … notice that the mother has her purse sitting on the night stand next to her bed. I wonder how many mothers today would like this arrangement? Yea, I did not think that many would. Back when I had my tonsils taken out in 1959 at the old Sacred Heart Hospital at the tender age of six, I was stuck in a men’s ward with ten other men. It was the worst experience that I had ever had up to that time, but that is another story in itself and I do not have any photos from that time. Also, it would take me forever to give you the full run down and I hate to type anyway so you will be spared that story. I also have a bill that my mother received from her stay at the hospital that I will have to find and scan ,,, you will enjoy the simplicity of the bill. I think they charged her twenty cents for two aspirin was one of the lines on the bill. If you have been in the hospital lately and received a bill, you will wish you were back in the good old days … sort of, for a moment anyway.
Thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed the program … this is sort of like looking at old episodes of the Andy Grifith Show, only minus Barney and Goober. Thanks for looking and please check back. If any of you can remember your stay in a hospital ward, let us hear them … Frank
The Operation …
Here is another photo of an operation in progress from back in the 1940’s. It looks as if the surgeon has on some type of gloves, but neither he or the nurse has on any type of mask. Obviously this was not some type of major surgery or I doubt that my father would have been allowed in with his camera, but back in the day you never know. I do not have any idea who the doctor was or the nurse either. If anyone knows, please let us know … thanks for looking and please check back … Frank
Building the School of Nursing …
This is a photo of the foundation when they were constructing the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in around 1945 or 46. You cannot tell by looking at the building in the previous post, but the building is built in the shape ” W ” . This just show the two outer sides … there was another section in the center that housed a small auditorium, or at least it was back then and when it was a school. You can sort of see where there are extending the center part of the foundation in the photo above. If anyone remembers the building being built and has any comments along that line, please let us hear from you. Even if you don’t remember the building being built, but attended nursing school in this building, please let us hear from you, also. Well, even if you attended the Academy of Arts and Sciences in this building, we would like to hear from you, too. I ran across some old negatives from my high school days, and if any of the old alumni would like to see some old Academy photos, let me know and I will clean them up and post them. Thanks for looking … Frank
Old Sacred Heart Hospital Nursing School …
This building on 12th Avenue used to be the home of the old Sacred Heart Hospital Nursing School. I am not sure of the years that it was built and was the school and home for the nurses of Sacred Heart Hospital. From 1969 until around 1979, it was the home of the Academy of Arts and Sciences … this was were I went to high school for 10th, 11th and 12th grades and graduated in 1971. I believe there were 55 kids in my class. If you look real close you will see three nuns and two nurses in this photo, which was made sometime in the 1950’s, I would guess. I have posted a view from the other side earlier, but this is the first from the south end looking north. If you happen to know the years when this was the nursing school, please let us know … Thanks for looking … Frank
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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