Former Hospital Complex in Franklin LA Prior to Conversion to Housing

Franklin Foundation Hospital, Franklin Louisiana

Date added: March 11, 2025

Categories:
Louisiana
Hospital

Original 1951 one story hospital and three story 1966 expansion (2017)

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The Franklin Foundation Hospital was a direct consequence of the 1946 Hill-Burton Hospital Construction Act, the far-reaching federal legislation that sponsored hospital construction and health clinics in under-served areas, particularly in rural communities and small towns. The Franklin Hospital was one of the first built in Louisiana under the Hill-Burton program and continued to use the program in its expansions and direction until its demise in the 1970s. The Hill-Burton program was a major landmark in U.S. healthcare history. Between 1947 and 1970, 5,677 hospitals were built under the Hill-Burton auspices, half of those in communities with populations less than 10,000. The program set nationwide standards for hospitals and health clinics, later adding nursing homes, chronic disease hospitals, mental health, and rehabilitation facilities. Southern states benefited from the program more than any other region with their heavily rural populations and low per-capita incomes. The Franklin Hospital was constructed and expanded during the peak of the Hill-Burton era and embodies the progressive goals of the program, both in the approaches to health care and its physical expression in a new, modern design. The building's International Style design and aesthetics carried through its expansions and alterations, which add to its historic importance by conveying the rapid changes and growth of health care in the 1950s and 1960s. Many Hill-Burton hospitals and buildings have been heavily altered as well as abandoned. The Franklin Foundation Hospital is an important example of a rapidly disappearing era of American health care.

The southwestern Louisiana parish of St. Mary was settled by Europeans in the early 19^th century. The town of Franklin was established in 1811. It was a crossroads for trade and westward travel, by virtue of its location on Bayou Teche, a navigable waterway. The boom in sugar agriculture in the later 19^th century brought wealth, more white settlers, and a dependence on slave labor. The town developed a sophisticated infrastructure of commerce, social relationships, churches, and an imposing built landscape dominated by large, palatial homes. St. Mary Parish and Franklin were places of intense political engagement and the leading families emphasized public service. The parish's relatively small population produced an unusual number of Louisiana and national leaders including five governors, four U.S. senators, a lieutenant governor, and a chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Health care in Franklin and St. Mary Parish was sporadic, although better than many Louisiana parishes because of the concentration of wealth. Like many American cities, health care in pre-World War II Franklin was on a personal basis, with little oversight or planning. In the 19^th and early 20^th century, doctors had operated private hospitals on a profit basis but they were essentially rest homes or sanitariums. African Americans in the parish had little or no access to hospital care of any kind until the mid-20^th century.

Franklin Foundation Hospital was constructed between 1951 and 1953, opening in 1953. The hospital was a centerpiece of community activism and solidarity, made possible by the historic Hill-Burton Survey and Hospital Construction Act of 1946. The hospital's first iteration was a modest expression of International style, later elaborated in the 1966 expansion. The hospital brought a new level of health care to Franklin and St. Mary Parish, both in its sophistication and its availability for all residents. The Hill-Burton program was a revolutionary government program that aggressively promoted hospital-building in American communities, especially tailored to aid small towns and rural areas. By offering to provide funds for construction if matched by local money and research about the needs of a town, city, community, or region, the Hill-Burton plan provided a road map and clear rewards.

The Franklin Foundation was organized in 1950 to take advantage of the Hill-Burton program act and secure a hospital for the community. The committee was led by John M. Caffery (1877-1958), scion of one of St. Mary Parish's most respected old families. Caffery was the son of U.S. Senator Donelson Caffery and a collateral relative of Andrew Jackson. He was well-placed in St. Mary Parish's upper class to command public and political attention. Caffery was a sugar planter, oil man, and holder of parish and state elected offices. His interest in establishing a modern, public hospital for Franklin was apparently part of his family's tradition of public service and also a recognition of the need for the community to modernize to consolidate its contemporary success as an oil center. The parish police jury (the equivalent of a county commission) appointed Caffery and four other prominent citizens as commissioners of the hospital committee. The other four were Margaret Bauer, Albert Blevins, Hugh Junca, and Mike Marquette. All the commissioners were white and were from established families in and near Franklin. In the rigid era of racial segregation in 1950s Louisiana, it would have been unthinkable to include an African American on the committee.

Although nearby Morgan City was the largest town in St. Mary Parish, it did not participate in the hospital drive. The area covered was to be the western half of the parish "from the Calumet Spillway to the Iberia (Parish) line." Doctors in the Franklin area were not uniformly enthusiastic about a new public hospital. In fact, three local doctors had opened a 10-bed private hospital in 1950, the Franklin Medical Center, financing it themselves. Nevertheless, a doctors committee was formed to advise the commissioners and the medical community did support the hospital drive.

The local community's responsibility for funding at least half of the new hospital was achieved through a bond issue, which passed smoothly through the rungs of local government in 1951. A new property tax was added for residents of the hospital district (the west side of St. Mary Parish) to underwrite $225,000 in bond sales. The federal government provided $215,000. By late 1951, construction of the hospital was underway. The site for the hospital was donated by John Caffery. The 7.5-acre parcel was on the edge of Franklin, on what had been a plantation. It was also the site of a Civil War skirmish in 1864. The site provided ample land for the hospital and its planned expansions (as seen on the first blueprints, the Franklin Foundation committee was confident the first building would soon need additions). By placing the hospital on the edge of town ina relatively undeveloped area, the planners were able to take advantage of an almost rural setting of level land gently sloping toward Bayou Teche, barely half a mile to the south that was covered with live oaks and other native plants. The one-story, brick building was set back from the street, near the center of the large block. A curving driveway led to the main entrance, which gave a sense of arrival and importance. The bands of windows on every facade looked out on green lawns, shrubs, and live oaks. The Franklin community's eagerness for a modern hospital was combined with the small town aesthetics of a lush, green setting.

The hospital opened with great fanfare on Memorial Day 1953. The local newspaper, the St. Mary and Franklin Banner-Tribune, devoted an entire issue to the event and the history of medicine and health care in St. Mary Parish (May 28^th, 1953). It is interesting to note that in the news stories (both before and after the May opening), the Hill-Burton Act is mentioned only in passing, and never with any acknowledgment of its far-reaching importance for the entire nation. The hospital was treated in the local press and government as a community-generated project with incidental help from the federal government. One of the most important aspects of the Hill-Burton act was its insistence on making health care available to all citizens, "without discrimination on account of race, creed, or color, and provide for adequate hospital facilities for persons unable to pay therefore." In order for Southern politicians to support the law it included a provision that "separate" facilities could be used in accordance with local traditions. That is, the legal concept of "separate but equal" facilities to enforce racial segregation. Although this element has been the focus of serious criticism in the following decades, in practice, Hill-Burton health clinics and hospitals offered professional, modern medical care to many African Americans for the first time. In Franklin, the accommodation was unambiguous. The 1951 blueprints show a "colored waiting room" at the rear of the building, squeezed in with the utilities and laundry work areas. Unlike the large white waiting room at the front driveway with large plate glass windows, the waiting room for blacks was small and accessed only through rear service doors. In its coverage of the new hospital, the Franklin newspaper blandly noted that its features included "a colored nursing corridor" in the list with a "large kitchen, day storage for kitchen supplies, laundry, and general storage where all non-sterile supplies are kept."

The Banner Tribune also included photos of black employees without commenting on the segregated status of the facility. According to the reports the African American staff included two professionals, a black registered nurse and a "practical nurse" (both with degrees), along with the cooks and janitors.

Franklin, Louisiana, was one of the many American communities served by the Hill-Burton Act. Unlike many of the other Hill-Burton beneficiaries, Franklin's community-federal partnership hospital is still in existence in recognizable condition. The building is a prime example of Modernist design used by most Hill-Burton hospitals and shows how the hospital expanded, which was a key component of U.S. healthcare in the second part of the 20^th century.

The Hill-Burton Act

The federal health care law enacted in August 1946 was designed to build modern, fully staffed hospitals that would provide what was considered the optimum in health care, 4.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people in the United States. At the time, more than 40 percent of U.S. counties lacked a hospital of any kind. Conceived and sponsored by Sen. Lister Hill, an Alabama Democrat, and Sen. Harold Burton, an Ohio Republican, the program was approved with little controversy. Even the non-discrimination element was carefully finessed by Hill, a traditional Southern Democrat with a strong interest in health care (his doctor father named him for his mentor, the English physician Joseph Lister).

In 1950, the surgeon general's office wrote approvingly:

"The National Hospital Program has now been in operation for three years … For the first time a definite plan is being followed by each state in determining the location size and type of facility which can best meet the hospital and health center needs of the people … A total of 65,000 hospital beds and 250 public health centers are being added to the nation's health plant by 1,300 projects approved as of June 20^th, 1950."

By the time the Hill-Burton Act came to an end in 1975 (it was merged into the Public Health Service Act), it had provided more than 6,800 facilities in 4,000 American communities. Louisiana benefited very well from the Hill-Burton act. By 1968, there were 261 projects funded in the state with 105 of them hospitals (other work included health clinics and nursing homes).

Site Description

The Franklin Foundation Hospital, constructed between 1951 and 1953, and expanded in 1966 and 1985, is located less than half a mile north of Bayou Teche, the waterway that has defined Franklin for its entire history. The facility, now vacant, occupies 7.5 acres on a large, tree-shaded block with the main entrance facing south toward Hospital Avenue. The red-brick hospital complex contains the original one-story 1953 facility and the three-story 1960s expansion inserted into the initial "H" footprint. The entrance pavilion and black plate glass tower are situated at the apex of the curving driveway giving the blended buildings a strong visual identity. The south-facing facade of the three-story block adjacent to the glass wall is stucco and stone, with a yellow-beige cast, further accenting the entrance and adding emphasis with its contrast to the uniform red-brick cladding of the rest of the complex. The campus is ringed with live oaks and mature crepe myrtles, which soften but do not obscure the clean, sharp-edged International style design of the hospital. The complex retains the hallmarks of its first iteration, the one-story 1953 hospital with flat roofs, evenly spaced bands of metal windows, and avoidance of ornamentation. The interior of the hospital has not been altered since it closed in the early 2000s. While there were reworkings of spaces and renovations over the decades, many of the interiors still possess details such as solid wood doors, tile wainscoting, wood cabinetry, and metal casings.

The Franklin Foundation Hospital, at 1501 Hospital Avenue, Franklin, Louisiana, occupies almost an entire city block. The main building sprawls over more than 60 percent of the site, with parking lots and a maintenance building covering about 25 percent more of the space. The main entrance of the building faces southeast, toward Hospital Avenue, and is bordered by King, Cynthia, and Haifleigh streets, with Franklin Senior High School immediately to the west, a city park one block to the southeast, and a few blocks farther southeast is Bayou Teche, the waterway that has defined Franklin for its more than 200 years of history. The Franklin Foundation Hospital was built in 1951 and was expanded through the 1960s with a later addition in 1985.

The hospital complex is a series of linear blocks that begin with the 1951 building, a 17,620 square foot one-story brick building with a central block on a northwest-southeast axis and two projecting wings to the southwest and northeast. Designed by Fuhrmann & Geier, a Baton Rouge architectural firm, the building was a classic example of the American International Style. Simple geometric forms, horizontal fenestration, and flat roofs are hallmarks of International Style, the modern movement in architecture that became the de facto style for institutional buildings in the U.S. after World War II. Fuhrmann & Geier were confident practitioners of the International toolkit and produced a clean, crisp building that also projected a low-key, welcoming atmosphere with its warm red brick cladding, bands of windows, and low-rise scale.

The 25-bed hospital included a surgery suite, maternity facilities, x-ray, emergency room, laboratory, pharmacy, and even a small solarium. This original hospital building also contained two waiting rooms, one for whites and one for "colored" patients. The white waiting room was at the front of the building, framed by a wall of windows and entered from the curving driveway. The waiting room for African Americans was much smaller, located in the service area at the back of the building, squeezed in among the boiler room, storage, and laundry. Following the dictates of segregation, black patients and their families entered through a rear door. However, the inclusion of a "colored waiting room" at all in 1950s Louisiana was a direct result of the 1946 Hill-Burton Act, which tied federal monies for hospitals to equal access to health care for all.

In the 1960s, the hospital was expanded by 15,550 square feet into a full "H" footprint. A parallel wing was added to the northeast, as anticipated in the April 20^th, 1951, blueprints, which showed an outline for "Future Expansion." The new construction blended into the existing building, using the same materials, massing, and proportions of the 1951 design.

The Franklin Foundation Hospital was a success from its earliest days. The town of Franklin experienced a 52 percent increase in population from 1950 to 1970, growing from 6,144 residents to 9,325. This was reflected in the hospital's operations, which led to a major expansion in 1966. Constructed over a two-year period, the 59,425-square-foot expansion nearly tripled the size of the hospital from 33,170 square feet to 92,595 square feet. This massive undertaking included the addition of a three-story "T" shaped building that was inserted between the two major blocks (to the northeast and southwest) and a four-story glass tower, facing Hospital Drive, which connected the new addition with the existing hospital. The tower, with its glass wall, was a typical 1960s architectural device, often seen in office buildings and hotels, and was a decorative element that would remain within the International Style ethos of straight lines, muscular massing, and clarity of materials). The Franklin Hospital's three-story tower and black plate glass four-story stairwell adjacent to the main entrance added a prominent visual anchor, but the changes did not envelope or obscure the original building. The one-story 1951 hospital was impacted, but did not disappear. The three-story addition was inserted into the footprint without disturbing the older building. The hospital was easily read as a 1950s International Style building that had been expanded in the 1960s with details that were also of the International Style. The red brick cladding, poured concrete, and slab-on-grade construction continued the design while marking out the expansion.

In 1985, the hospital underwent its final expansion, which only increased the overall square footage of the facility by 9,229 square feet. The northeast block was widened to include a new intensive care unit and add additional space for administrative capacity and outpatient care. The southwest wing was expanded for a nurses' training program and a new emergency treatment center. Again, the planners used the existing building as their guide, relying on red brick cladding, metal-framed windows, and uncluttered linear composition to blend the new addition into the whole.

Throughout multiple expansions and renovations, the southeastern facade retained its status as the front of the building and location of the main entrance. While the main entrance of the building did not change from a locational standpoint, the 1966 addition did alter the overall appearance of the original 1951 entrance. The inclusion of a segmental arch overhang allowed patients to temporarily park and enter the hospital while not being directly exposed to the elements. This design element added an additional architectural element to the building as well. The concurrent additions of the four-story glass stairwell and smaller flat overhang allowed patients and employees alike to have a direct entrance into the three-story tower from the entrance drive. The reflective glass staircase is playfully offset by the coarse matte finish of the adjacent stucco and stone facade, creating a visual break from the heavy use of plate glass in the entrance facade with the uniform red brick and slight stucco cladding seen in the remainder of the building.

The southwestern elevation provides the best contrast of the scale of the 1951 structure with the 1966 addition. While larger in height and massing, the facade of the 1966 building was seamlessly integrated into its 1951 partner, leading a casual observer to question whether this building was built all at one time or in multiple phases. The southwestern facade includes access to the main power room, drug storage room, and x-ray facility, while hiding the southwestern courtyard.

The northwestern service elevation is composed entirely of red brick cladding, sparse window and door penetrations, and foundations for the outdoor mechanical equipment. This elevation includes entrances to the engine generator room, surgical wing, employee lockers, and laundry rooms.

The northeastern facade displays a contrast in massing between the 1960s/1985 addition and the 1966 tower. Composed entirely in red brick the 1960s/1985 one-story structure displays few window penetrations, includes a narrow walkway that provides a direct entrance into the hallway between the intensive care unit and the kitchen, and hides the northeastern courtyard. The northeastern facade also clearly displays the brick and stucco cladding typical throughout the 1966 three-story tower.

The interior spaces of the hospital have been remodeled and re-purposed over the last seven decades. The public rooms, patient rooms, treatment areas, and service spaces have nevertheless retained a good deal of integrity. The Franklin Foundation Hospital closed this facility in the early 2000s and built a new hospital on the edge of town. Since then, this building has been boarded up. It has been relatively secure despite the years of neglect. The interior design exhibits coherent integrity including common area tile wainscoting, original wood cabinetry, scattered marble window sills, solid woods doors and metal casings. Though there are some broken windows and missing doors, the building's interior remains relatively intact.

The property includes one single-story brick outbuilding which was built in the late 1980s. Located on the northeast corner of the block, it was used for maintenance work and storage. The hospital square also includes two other buildings, located on the east side of the square, facing Hailfleigh Street.

The new owners of the hospital plan to preserve the site's history and culture and carefully renovate the building into multifamily housing for elderly residents.