From Houses to Hospitals

Festivities for Good Samaritan Medical Center’s 100th anniversary were curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an event that led to questions about how and why healthcare changed radically during and after World War I. From Houses to Hospitals examines how Palm Beach County’s modern healthcare system developed, expanding during the Roaring ‘20s. 

As the medical field adopted new standards of care, Americans became aware of how quickly diseases could spread. They supported the efforts of their physicians to build first-class accommodations for all, even as they remained segregated. In West Palm Beach, wealthy winter residents, Black and White citizens of more modest means, and newspapermen all joined the call to raise funds for Good Samaritan and Pine Ridge hospitals. Soon everyone was clamoring for better facilities.