As early as 1878 while prospecting for a site to establish a college for men in the Dakota Territory, Abbot Alexius Edelbrock, OSB, became aware of the need for a hospital in the still undeveloped area of Mandan and Bismarck. In 1885 he bought the Lamborn Hotel in Bismarck and succeeded in interesting Mother Scholastica Kerst in converting it to a hospital. It was a challenge to change the settlers' prejudice against hospitals as institutions for the wayward and shiftless. However, after five years and with the expertise of Dr. E. pageQuaine in surgery and Sister Boniface Timmers, OSB, in administration, the hospital gained favor and grew from a primitive institution to one of the finest hospitals in the land. With the help of a donation from St. John's Abbey, the Benedictine sisters were able to repay the abbey for the debt incurred by the original purchase and they named the hospital St. Alexius. By 1913, they were able to build a new hospital and to organize a school of nursing there (Saint Benedict's Monastery Archives; McDonald, pages 126-137).
Exterior of the Primary School, at the corner of North 3rd Avenue West and 1st Street North. It was razed in or around 1922, to be replaced by the Lincoln School. The Mesaba Electric Railway Company's trolley tracks can be seen in the foreground.
Large sitting room in the nurses' home of The Swedish Hospital, Minneapolis. The nurses would have come to this large room to write letters, socialize and read.
An internal view of a two bed patient room in the Minneapolis City Hospital's Contagion Building; the bathroom is visible through the door on the right.
Patients are shown taking an open-air treatment on the lawn of Minneapolis City Hospital's Hopewell Hospital. This quarantine hospital and tuberculosis sanatorium operated from 1907-192 and was later renamed Parkview Sanatorium.