At 10:45 p.m. on the rainy night of March 27, 1926 a fire started when a patient carelessly discarded his cigarette in the bathroom. The fire quickly spread to the wards above and was discovered by a nurse, Blanche Seward, who sounded the alarm. All 220 patients were safely evacuated thanks to hospital staff and the Shreveport Fire Department. Damages to the structure were estimated at $50,000.

1927
Hospital Renovations and Remodeling

The Legislature appropriated $240,000 to fireproof the hospital and build a power plant and a service building. This funding did not allow for remodeling the administrative building, which was later condemned by the fire marshal. In 1928, an additional $150,000 was granted to fund the two-year remodeling project. Not every problem was solved with the state funds. For example, the problem of swarming flies was resolved by distributing 300 fly swatters to the patients, rather than repairing the screens.

Click here for more information on this building.

W.R. (William Rosier) Mathews, M.D. was hired in 1929 as the chief pathologist of the Shreveport Charity Hospital. Known affectionately as “The Boss,” Mathews had a profound influence on hundreds of medical students, interns, residents, and others who trained at the Shreveport institution. Dr. Mathews retired in the early 1970s as Emeritus Professor.

In 1958, members of the Resident Staff at Confederate Memorial Medical Center established the W.R. Mathews Lectureship in appreciation of the many contributions he had made to the medical community. The first lecture was presented on June 19, 1958 by pathologist Hans Popper, M.D., Ph.D., from the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dr. Popper, who later established the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was a renowned authority on liver disease and was known as the Father of Modern Hepatology.