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Wheatley-Provident Hospital
Wheatley-Provident Hospital southeast side.jpg
Southeast side and front door
Location Kansas City, Missouri
Elevation 817 ft
Built 1903; 121 years ago (1903)
Original use St. Joseph's Parochial School
Rebuilt June 1, 1918; 106 years ago (1918-06-01)
Restored by 1826 Forest Re Holdings LLC
Current use Historical restoration
Owner 1826 Forest Re Holdings LLC
Wheatley-Provident Hospital northeast August 2020
Northeast side, under rehabilitation, in August 2020
Wheatley-Provident Hospital etching east roof
Etching above the east-facing front door
Wheatley-Provident Hospital north face asylum sign
North face, with the rooftop "ASYLUM" sign remnant from having been a Halloween haunted house attraction in the 1980s-1990s
Wheatley-Provident Hospital fundraiser photo 1917
Fundraiser photo, 1917

Wheatley-Provident Hospital is a historic site at 1826 Forest Avenue in the 18th and Vine District of Kansas City, Missouri. It was founded in 1902 and became Kansas City's first hospital for Black people.

History

The hospital's precursor institution was a small hospital and training school for nurses founded in 1902 by Dr. John Edward Perry. In 1910, it was located at 1214 Vine, named Perry Sanitarium and Nurse Training Association.

On June 1, 1918, after an extensive fundraiser campaign yielding US$25,000 (equivalent to about $486,000 in 2022), the facility was relocated to an existing building at 1826 Forest Avenue. Having been built in 1903 as St. Joseph's Parochial School, that building was renamed Wheatley-Provident Hospital and repurposed as Kansas City's first hospital for Black people. It was led by Dr. Perry and his wife Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry, who was the daughter of Rosetta Douglass and granddaughter of Frederick Douglass.

A children's wing was added in 1925. By 1971, 50,000 patients had been served, and the hospital was closed 1972.

It entered the Kansas City Register of Historic Places in 2007 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 2020. The property became owned by an absentee landlord, and was declared a hazardous building and threatened with demolition by 2017. The historic building was saved from destruction and rehabilitation began in 2021. The owner is 1826 Forest Re Holdings LLC, which is rehabilitating the property into office space, preferably for tenants in the medical field for consistency with its heritage.

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