Saint Anthony Hospital is significant for its pioneering integration role in healthcare within the city of Milwaukee. Affiliated with St. Benedict the Moor Church and its African-American congregation, the hospital was built in 1931 to serve all creeds and races at a time when racial discrimination limited medical care options for many African-Americans. Administered by the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Anthony Hospital drew most of its patients from a surrounding area that included the majority of the city’s African-American community, as well as a number of Jewish, Greek, and German residents. By 1936, the hospital annually treated 1,697 patients and, within ten years, this number had increased to 3,731, at which time a large addition was constructed increasing hospital capacity to 135 beds.

A notable event in the history of Saint Anthony Hospital occurred in 1954 when Dr. John W. Maxwell, Sr. was elected Chief of Staff by his fellow physicians. At the time, he was one of two black doctors on Saint Anthony’s staff of forty physicians that served a patient population which was 30% black. Dr. Maxwell was the first African-American chief of staff in any Wisconsin hospital. A graduate of Meharry Medical College, Dr. Maxwell came to Milwaukee to practice medicine at Saint Anthony Hospital in 1946. In 1961, he was named General Practitioner of the Year by the National Medical Association.

By 1965, Saint Anthony Hospital’s patient population remained consistent featuring 35% black and 65% white patients; however, its staff of eighty doctors included more African-American physicians featuring six of the twenty black doctors practicing medicine in Milwaukee, as well as four black registered nurses and five black practical nurses. At the same time, the hospital was contending with changes to the neighborhood it served with freeway development and urban renewal forcing many of its residents to relocate. Ultimately, these changes, coupled with an inability to raise money for expansion or relocation, led the hospital to close in 1988.

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