The Montgomery County Historical Commission invites the public to a special historical marker dedication ceremony at the front steps of the old County Hospital on Monday morning, Sept. 15, at 9am. It is located at 301 1st Street in east Conroe in what was the city’s first residential area in the early 1900s.
Opened exactly 87 years ago on September 15,1938, Montgomery County’s first public hospital had been abandoned and was destined for demolition when it was purchased by the Kansas-based Overland Property Group. With the support of the Conroe city council and staff, Overland Property Group has transformed the old hospital into an attractive senior living community now known as “Landmark 301.”
The old hospital rooms have now been modified into attractive one and two bedroom apartments along with other amenities for its senior residents.
In the 1930s, Conroe and Montgomery County experienced an oil boom that, coupled with a profitable lumber industry, greatly boosted the economy and spurred population growth. The region, however, lacked sufficient healthcare facilities to support the growing population. Thus, the city’s rapid growth overburdened the few doctors in the county and the Mary Swaim Sanitarium, a small private hospital on East Davis Street. The urgency for a public hospital resulted in the construction of Conroe’s Montgomery County Hospital in 1938; it was the region’s first public hospital and was the only local medical facility to provide emergency care and surgical services for more than three decades. Over that period, thousands of babies were born in the hospital.
Montgomery County Hospital’s first addition was completed in 1954 on the heels of a Texas-wide polio epidemic, as well as post-WWII population growth that necessitated expanded healthcare services. It continued to serve as the primary hospital in the area through the late 1960s. By 1977, the board of directors of the newly established Montgomery County Hospital District assumed the management and maintenance of the facility. The board began searching for a larger tract of land on which a new state-of-art hospital and adjacent medical professional buildings could be built. The tract was located and purchased on the south side of Conroe.
By 1982 rapid population growth in Conroe and the county, combined with the expansion of Interstate Highway 45, brought expanded medical facilities to the city, including a regional county public hospital complex and ten medical clinics, relieving the region’s need for the facility on 1st Street that had no more room for expansion. The old building was used for a time as a private low-cost housing facility. But when that operation closed its doors, the old building was vacated and began to fall into serious disrepair.
Known nationally for its creative financing using federal and state tax credits, Overland Property Group has been successful in getting the old facility recognized on the esteemed National Register of Historic Places. This is the first such recognition of a historic site in Montgomery County since 1974 and the very first in Conroe.
“I’m delighted that the 1938 county hospital has been repurposed as senior apartments to continue its service to Conroe and Montgomery County,” said Larry Foerster, chairman of the County Historical Commission. “The preservation of the old hospital helps restore the early legacy of what was the residential center of Conroe 100 years ago. It is worth noting too that the hospital was constructed at a time when the largest portion of Conroe residents still lived on the east side of the tracks,” he said. “So the hospital was convenient to most of the city’s residents. We hope that others will see the value in preserving historic structures rather than demolishing them.”
The Montgomery County Hospital had faithfully served Conroe for over 40 years, a medical institution staffed by and serving all, without concern for race, nationality, creed, or financial status. The County Historical Commission extends a special invitation to county residents who were born or treated in the old public hospital to attend the historic marker ceremony on Monday morning.