Everglades Memorial Hospital

Early Years of the Everglades Memorial Hospital

Everglades Memorial Hospital opened in 1936 in the small town of Pahokee, Florida, on Bacom Point Road. By the 1940s, the relatively small hospital was facing overcrowding and no longer met the community’s medical needs. The region’s population has grown, but the healthcare system had not kept up with the increase. Much of the population was also black and migrant laborers who worked the fields and often avoided seeking medical care.

Voters approved a $160,000 bond issue for the construction of a new hospital. The City of Pahokee hired architect William Manly King to draw up plans for the new facility to be built on East Main Street. King had designed several projects in the region, including the Belle Glade and Pahokee city halls, Pahokee High School, and several buildings at the nearby Florida State Prison Farm.

Construction of the new Everglades Memorial Hospital was completed in mid-1949, featuring two wings—one for white patients and one for Black patients—as was required by law during the Jim Crow era. The building was completed at $120,000, with the remainder of the $160,000 used for modern equipment and furnishings. Each ward included eight private rooms, a sex-bed general ward, a sex-bed maternity ward, three pediatric beds, and a nursery equipped with bassinets and incubators. Unlike the older building, the hospital was modernized and featured X-ray and lab facilities, electrical sterilizers, and a diesel-powered steam system for heating and hot water.

Everglades Memorial Hospital opened in August 1949, followed by a dedication ceremony held on May 11, 1950, National Hospital Day. The event drew representatives from nearly every local civic organization, including the Rotary, Elks, Masons, Lions, Women’s Club, Everglades Business & Professional Women’s Club, Beta Sigma Phi sorority, and the Garden Club. Reverend Fred L. Martin, one of the directors of the hospital in its early days, gave the invocation and spoke about the hospital’s early organization.

The New and Third Iteration of Everglades Memorial

By the 1960s, Everglades Memorial Hospital was no longer meeting standards and had lost accreditation due to its outdated equipment and facilities. On May 28, 1963, a $800,000 bond issue was passed for the construction of a new and modern facility—the third iteration of Everglades Memorial Hospital. Rather than hire locally, though, the Northwest Palm Beach County Hospital Board decided to hire Charles H. McCauley, an architect from Birmingham, Alabama.

Charles Hartman McCauley was a notable architect and founder of the firm Charles H. McCauley Associates. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois and moved to Birmingham in 1919, where he worked for William Welton before opening his own practice in 1925. By the time he was hired to design the Everglades Memorial Hospital, McCauley had worked on several projects, including office buildings, churches, auditoriums and theaters, hospitals, and residences.

Ground was broken on the new facility in April 1964, and construction was completed in 1965, with its open house occurring on September 12, 1965, two weeks after the opening of the nearby Glades General Hospital. Completed at $1.25 million, the new hospital had a 50-bed capacity, although the hospital could service up to 100 beds and could be expanded to 70 beds in case of an emergency. The building was also constructed in a manner that would allow an additional floor to be added without damaging the foundation.

All of the patient rooms were located on the second floor of the long, T-shaped, two-story structure. The first floor had an emergency room, operating room, X-ray facilities, laboratory, administrative offices, a kitchen, housekeeper’s office, and laundry room. The hospital featured modern equipment, including an audiovisual call system, a central air conditioning and heating system, a public address system, and central oxygen storage. The building also featured an elevator, the first of its kind in Pahokee.

Consolidation and Closure

In 1986, following privatization, the hospital was renamed Everglades Regional Medical Center. Around that time, discussions emerged about merging the facility with Glades General Hospital in nearby Belle Glade, less than ten miles away. Everglades officials opposed the plan, asserting they would rather absorb Glades General than merge as equals. By 1991, the Palm Beach County Health Care District Board voted to close Everglades Memorial and consolidate all hospital care at Glades General. Consultants projected annual savings of $10–13 million, noting that taxpayers were already subsidizing both hospitals for $11.4 million per year.

In 1992, Everglades Memorial filed suit against the Health Care District to halt the merger, claiming the board had financially crippled the hospital after assuming ownership in 1991. Three lawsuits followed, two were dismissed, and the third was decided in favor of the district. Despite attempts to remain viable, the hospital ultimately closed in 1998, amid accusations that it had been financially forced to shut down.

The building sat vacant for more than two decades, ravaged by copper thieves, vandals, and neglect until it was little more than a shell. Demolition began in September 2020, but quickly drew controversy when clouds of dust, believed to contain asbestos, drifted into nearby properties, including a nursing home, funeral home, and several residences. Neighbors alleged that no dust or asbestos mitigation measures were taken. The incident was subsequently reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Departments of Health and Environmental Protection.

Photo Gallery

Further Reading

Sunlit Arches: How William Manly King Shaped South Florida. (2025). Janet Naughton