Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital

Front: Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital, created in 1938 by the merger of two older hospitals, served the black community of Columbia for 35 years. It merged Good Samaritan Hospital, founded in 1910 by Dr. William S. Rhodes and his wife Lillian, and Waverly Hospital, founded in 1924 by Dr. Norman A. Jenkins and his four brothers. The hospitals competed for the same doctors, nurses, and patients for several years. Reverse: By the mid-1930s the Duke Endowment and the Rosenwald Fund recommended a merger of the two hospitals to improve the quality of health care for blacks in Columbia and surrounding counties. This building, the first in Columbia built specifically as a hospital for blacks, opened in 1952. After the new integrated Richland Memorial Hospital opened in 1972, Good Samaritan-Waverly Hospital closed the next year.