From the Collection April 2020: Doctor, Doctor!

The early 20th century saw a rise in the establishment of private hospitals and Wilmington was no exception. In 1921, Dr. Ernest Southerland Bulluck, a noted physician and surgeon, purchased the lot between the Murchison National Bank Building and the Bijou Theater. When asked what he was going to do with the property, Bulluck stated that he would likely use the lot as rental property. Three weeks later, Bulluck announced plans for his own private hospital.

 

The three-story Bulluck Hospital at 221 N. Front was “modern in every respect” when it was constructed. The hospital portion of the building comprised the second and third floors while Bulluck maintained his own office, waiting rooms, and a library on the first floor. The entire structure cost approximately $75,000 to build ($1.05 million in 2018) with the hospital portion of the building designed to accommodate up to 50 patients. Spaces on the ground floor were leased to individual businesses and originally included a pharmacy and florist shop.

 

After officially opening its doors on September 4, 1922, the hospital provided service to more than 500 patients within its first year of operation. The hospital had quite a distinction as it was the first hospital in Wilmington to hire a female physician, Dr. Annie T. Smith of Durham. By 1924, the hospital had become the first hospital in Wilmington to “meet all requirements of the American College of Surgeons.” The hospital even had a School of Nursing.

 

Dr. Bulluck died in 1944 and the hospital closed for a time. At the end of WWII, Dr. Thomas Sinclair and Dr. William C. Mebane ran a small medical practice out of the building. In 1947, more than 900 patients came through the doors of Bulluck Hospital. Some time later, Sinclair, Mebane, along with Dr. Samuel E. Pace, purchased the county’s closed tuberculosis sanitarium on Wrightsville Avenue and opened Cape Fear Memorial Hospital.

 

By the 1950s, Bulluck Hospital's facilities had become overcrowded and aged. With the opening of Cape Fear Memorial, the little hospital in the heart of Wilmington closed its doors for good. The image seen here shows the exterior of the building in 1983 before renovation projects took place. After renovation, the building continued its role in the health care industry, being used as the headquarters for a home health care business.

 

The building once home to Bulluck Hospital still stands in downtown Wilmington and is presently home to Wilmington Downtown Incorporated.