History with ‘Hud’: Remembering when North Carolina’s first pediatric hospital opened in Wrightsville Beach
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Receiving care from a doctor specifically for children is readily available today. But that wasn’t the case as recently as a century ago.
North Carolina didn’t have a dedicated hospital for kids until 1920 when the first pediatric hospital in the state opened its doors in Wrightsville Beach. It was strategically located along the intracoastal waterway due to the belief of physicians at the time the salty ocean breezes helped with the healing process.
Known as the ‘Babies Hospital’, the idea was started by Wilmington native Dr. J. Buren Sidbury to help sick babies. He was only the second doctor in North Carolina to specialize in pediatrics, and cited the success of similar seaside hospitals in Virginia and New Jersey. It remained the only pediatric hospital in North Carolina until Duke Hospital opened in 1930.
The original wooden building unfortunately didn’t even last a decade, burning down in 1927 with miraculously no deaths or injuries. It was quickly replaced with a fireproof Mediterranean style two-story structure with 22 rooms, a spacious ward and a roof garden with high walls for sunning. The new hospital building began with two graduate nurses and five nurses’ helpers, with a milk station for carefully preparing food.
Until the late 1930s, the hospital was only open during the summer months when ocean breezes were at their warmest. It could treat up to 40 babies at a time, for locals and visitors alike. But the hospital remained open throughout the whole year in the winter of 1941 into 1942, continuing the trend moving forward.
Beginning that same year, the hospital started conducting a nurses training program allowing senior student pediatric nurses from hospitals throughout the state to train for three months.
A third floor was added to the hospital in 1954 for that reason, allowing a nurse’s dormitory to be built and a pediatric research center which was used by UNCW’s marine biomedical research department.
Patient usage peaked in 1967, with people even being referred to the facility from bordering states. But the need for a hospital with a foundation of healing based on the local air mass began to dwindle in the years to follow.
Modern methods for treating sick babies lead the hospital’s board of directors to close the hospital in 1978. It was used for various other purposes including office space through the remainder of the 21st century before being demolished in 2004.
Although the once vitally important building hasn’t been standing for two decades, the lives of babies they helped recover from various conditions were forever changed.
Meteorologist Matthew Huddleston (‘Hud’) has always had two major loves – weather and history. While you can watch him talk about weather each morning on WWAY, he looks forward to bringing you a little piece of history each Thursday on WWAY’s website.
To read other History with ‘Hud’ segments, click HERE.
