Burrell Memorial Hospital

K-128

Five African American physicians opened Burrell Memorial Hospital in a house at 311 Henry St. in March 1915. They named it in honor of their colleague Dr. Isaac D. Burrell, who had died in 1914 after traveling by train to undergo surgery in Washington, D.C., as local hospitals treated only whites. Burrell Memorial, which became the region's largest medical facility for black patients, moved into a former school on this site in 1921 and occupied a new building here in 1955. The hospital’s nursing school prepared African Americans for careers as registered nurses before closing in the 1930s. A school for practical nurses opened here in the 1950s. Burrell Memorial Hospital closed in 1978.

Department of Historic Resources, 2020

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

L.C. Downing, “Burrell Memorial Hospital,” Journal of the National Medical Association vol. 22, no. 3 (1930): 158-159. Roanoke Times, 19 March 1915. Richmond Times Dispatch, 7 Oct. 1914, 11 Sept. 1915, 9 Dec. 1978. Norfolk Journal and Guide, 12 May 1917, 26 Feb. 1921. Roanoke Tribune, 8 Aug. 1953, 6 Aug. 1955. “Burrell Memorial Hospital, Roanoke, Virginia,” Journal of the National Medical Association (May 1963): 256-257. “Burrell Center History,” Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare Ann Field Alexander, “Burrell, Isaac David,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, vol. 2 (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2001), 419-420. Kiesha Dian Green, “Lylburn Clinton Downing,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Downing_Lylburn_Clinton Burrell Memorial Hospital, NRHP nomination (2003). Phoebe Ann Pollitt, African American and Cherokee Nurses in Appalachia: A History, 1900-1965 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016). Ann Field Alexander, Notes on the Death of Dr. Isaac David Burrell, 28 Nov. 1990 Virginia State Board of Examiners of Nurses Minutes, Library of Virginia.