Putting it all Into Perspective: The Evolution of the Hospital Buildings Located on the Loma Linda Campus (1905 – 2018): A Brief History
Health Care on What is Now Known as the Loma Linda University Campus Began on the Hill Some 113-years Ago.
But, Along the Way, There Were a Few Logistical Ups and Downs.
by Dennis E. Park, MA
During its first 62-years of operation, a proper physical plant for a teaching hospital was as unsettled as the mission of the institution. Both of these factors had to be looked at through the lens of available funding, which in those early days was always tight. What would eventually become the Loma Linda Sanitarium was first known, albeit for a short period, as the Mound City Hotel. Sometime before 1900, the name was changed to the Mound City Villa. By the time the Adventists purchased the property in 1905, the four-story building, the largest on the hill, had sat vacant after failing to live up to a much-advertised health resort. In July of 1905, the first patients were admitted to the new Loma Linda Sanitarium (1).
The Loma Linda Sanitarium [circa 1905]. 🔨
It was soon apparent that a sanitarium setting was not conducive environment to train nursing and medical students. Some factors claim into play, which required the construction of a teaching hospital. In 1913, the first hospital (2) was built down in a pasture to the west of the hill. Today, that area is referred to as the quadrangle.
The first Hospital site in Loma Linda was in a hay field just below the western brow of the hill [circa 1915]. 🔨
By the early 1920s, the college administrators realized that a larger hospital was needed to meet the teaching requirements and patient needs as set forth by the accrediting body. In 1924, a new hospital (3) was under construction back up on the hill just south of the existing sanitarium. This new hospital was built with an eye toward expansion if and when needed.
The initial structure of the second hospital on the Loma Linda Campus Circa 1925 [circa 1930]. 🔨
In 1929, the first addition was made to the existing hospital. The second and last significant addition was completed in 1949. That building on the hill still stands today and is home to several health care disciplines on the University campus. By the late 1950s, the hospital on the hill was bursting at the seams. The old wood and stucco building was not conducive to seismic fault activity that was found to traverse the area.
The second Loma Linda Hospital after the completion of the first addition, and before the last phase began [circa 1930]. 🔨
The site of the approximate 23-acre citrus grove on which the Current Hospitals stand and the construction site for the new hospitals [circa 1960]. 🔨
In 1962, at the west end of what was a citrus grove, excavation commenced digging the pit, building the pad, and foundation for the nine-story cloverleaf hospital. 🔨
In the early 1960s the hammer blows of progress began near the corner of Barton Road and Campus Street. As this new concrete state-of-the-art nine-story hospital having three towers like unto a cloverleaf increased in height, the structure became the talk of the Inland Empire. On July 9, 1967, the first patients from the hospital on the hill were transported by ambulance to the new hospital at the corner of Barton Road and Campus Street (formerly San Bernardino Ave.).
On July 9, 1967, patients began arriving by ambulance, at the emergency room entrance, from the hospital on the hill. Note the onlookers, watching the activity, on the far stairs, on the bank, and on either side of the ambulance [circa July 1967]. 🔨
An aerial view of the outline for the Cloverleaf towers. On the top of the podium, the west and south towers are in the forming stage [circa 1963]. 🔨
The cloverleaf towers are now well defined [circa 1963]. 🔨
With the cloverleaf towers topped off, work continues on the exterior while the work shifts into high gear inside the structure [circa 1966]. 🔨
An early 1970s photo of the new Loma Linda University Hospital: Photo by Richard A. Schaefer (1970)🔨
Through the years several major additions were made to the cloverleaf towers: In 1985, the Schuman Pavilion was completed; the Children’s Hospital was under construction in the early 1990s; the James Slater Proton Therapy Center was also under construction about that same time in that their facility had to be excavated two-stories underground; The Wong Kerlee International Conference Center (the Coleman Pavilion and the Chan Shun Pavilion) were built in the early 2000s.
A magnificent view of the Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and Medical Center [circa 2006]. 🔨
An extraordinary view of the existing Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and Medical Center as they loom over the footprint where the excavation continues in preparation for the new hospitals, which will rise out of the pit [2017]. 🔨
Fifty years later, the campus, and the community, including the Inland Empire, are reliving the excitement of a new iconic structure (5) that will bring health, hope, and healing to all who walk through its doors. Today, we marvel at the massive steel that has risen out of the ground and now ( as of June 18, 2018) beginning to dwarf the existing Children’s Hospital to the west. And so, the purpose of this website is to tell the story by documenting the construction of these new Loma Linda University Health Care facilities through the lens of the camera and the written word. And so, this blog is an abbreviated story of the ups and downs–from the hill to the pasture land; from the pasture land back up the hill; and from that hill to the citrus groves at the corner of Barton Road and Campus Street (formerly known as San Bernardino Ave.)– of the hospital locations on the Loma Linda University campus.
I remember well, the concrete towers going up on the existing Medical Center. We marveled at the structure which was billed, in those days, as an earthquake-resistant structure. The detached towers were designed to move independently during any seismic activity. Now, we are told the building no longer meets the strict seismic standards required by the State of California. Extended care in-patients, after 2020, will no longer be able to spend the night in the existing towers. Thus the raison d’entre for the construction of two new earthquake-resistant hospitals.
In the shadow of the cloverleaf towers, the podium’s steel skeleton will soon be top-out. 🔨
Today, we are witnessing the steel rise over the safety walls of the construction site. We watch those massive cranes lift the steel in place, and we wonder if this process will be revisited in another fifty years. When completed, the Loma Linda University Hospital campus will occupy the total area between Prospect Avenue to the North, Barton Road to the south, Anderson Street to the east, and Campus Street to the west. This is a far cry from the size of the first hospital, down in the pasture in the shadow of the hill. That structure would have fit nicely inside the pit of the new buildings with room left over.
ENJOY!
An artist’s rendering of the new Loma Linda University children’s and adult hospitals, which are under the umbrella of the LLU Campus Transformation Project Vision 2020. 🔨
End Notes: Unless otherwise noted, the photos in this blog are from the archives of the Loma Linda University; Del E. Webb Memorial Library, Heritage Room. 🔨
To learn more about the founding of the Loma Linda University campus, you might want to look into the following books:
- Neff, Merlin L., For God and C. M. E.; Pacific Press Publishing Association; Mountain View, California, 1964.
- Park, Dennis E.,The Mound City Chronicles, 1905 – 2005, The Centennial; Alumni Association School of Medicine of Loma Linda University, 2007.
- Reynolds, Keld J., ed., Loma Linda Yesterday; Redlands Federal Savings and Loan Association, 1979.
- Reynolds, Keld J., Sunshine Citrus And Science, The Loma Linda Community Story; Crown Printers, San Bernardino, California, 1985.
- Schaefer, Richard A., Legacy; Pacific Press Publishing Association; Mountain View, California, 1990.
- Small, Carrol S., ed. Diamond Memories: School of Medicine. Loma Linda; Alumni Association, School of Medicine of Loma Linda University, 1984.
- Utt, Richard, From Vision To Reality, Loma Linda University, 1905-1980; Loma Linda University Press; Loma Linda, California, 1980.
Also visit: <https://advancement.lluhealth.org/who-we-are/our-history>
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