HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing

Amarillo, Potter County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Prominent Amarillo Architect Guy Carlander designed this structure in 1924 as part of a larger hospital complex. The Panhandle oil boom of the 1920's strained municipal and medical facilities and a public teaching hospital was built. The complex included a nurses' dormitory and a ward for tubercular patients. The nursing school closed in 1985. The building is an interpretation of the Prairie school style. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1996

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

When the Panhandle oil boom of the 1920s swamped Amarillo's medical facilities, the city answered with a public teaching hospital, and prominent architect Guy Carlander designed this Prairie-style building in 1924 to house its nurses and a tuberculosis ward. For six decades the school trained nurses to staff a fast-growing region until it closed in 1985. Its clean horizontal lines still speak to the optimism of boomtown Amarillo.

Why it matters

The nursing school shows how an oil boom's sudden prosperity built lasting institutions of health and education—and opened a professional path for generations of women.

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Related people

  • · Guy Carlander

Themes & tags

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