In 1898, two nuns left northwestern Missouri and traveled to Oklahoma Territory with the hope of collecting money for a new hospital.
Their plan was to open it in Missouri, but they soon realized they would only get local support and funds if a care center was built in the territory. Their Mother Superior embraced the idea, and in 1898 land was purchased along with two small houses at 219 NW 4th near downtown Oklahoma City. That land would later become the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
A lease was signed on July 18 and doors opened on Aug. 1. The nuns lived in one house, with the other building serving as the hospital. Initially it was operated by four nuns and had 12 beds. It was the start of St. Anthony Hospital, Oklahoma’s first and oldest hospital. A few days after opening, the nuns’ first patient, a 27-year-old Jewish man from Cincinnati, arrived seeking care…