| City/Town: • Brinkley |
| Location Class: • Hospital |
| Built: • 1940's | Abandoned: • July, 1987 |
| Status: • Abandoned |
| Photojournalist: • Michael Schwarz • Eddy Sisson • Brandon Phillips |
This hospital first opened in the late 1940s as the Gazzola Memorial Mercy Hospital. For the first several years the hospital was ran by nuns. Over the years the hospital changed it’s name multiple times (Magnolia, Mercy Hospital, Delta Medical Center, etc.), and went abandoned in 2001 along with St. Joseph’s nursing home, which sits right next to the old hospital connected by a small hallway. Towards the back of the hospital, a small school for young children operated from about the 1970’s. Old wallpaper along with banners, desks and stories still remain.
In the old hospital today, you can find small pieces of the 1940’s architecture throughout the building, Old surgery rooms, delivery rooms, and a big stone cross on the outside. This place holds a lot of memories for the town of Brinkley, Arkansas. If only the walls could talk, the stories that this building could tell would just be fascinating.
Please enjoy the pictures below, and do not go to this facility without permission! Police constantly patrol the area and will arrest you for trespassing!
Gallery Below
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Sad , very sad, my grandmother worked there for years in the kitchen.
When was the hospital desegregated?
I had my appendix removed there when I was 7 in 1962 and
6 siblings born there. So sad to see this hospital in this condition. I would love to see it restored, just for history reasons
I am a photographer and would love to shoot in there. Is that possible?
The city would probably let you if you ask. They let the national guard run drills in it.
I remember the nuns there.
I used to mow the hospital lawn. Sister Mary Juliana hired me. She was a great friend of our family
As a low voltage technician, I worked on the fire alarm, nurse call system and intercoms for the nursing home in the late 1990's. I remember one day, after a service call, the administrator asked, "You wanna see something creepy?". A tour of the old hospital followed.
Good times…
My name is Myrtle, my mother worked as a nurse at Mercy Hospital for years until she retired. Did ambulance runs and I also worked in OR years ago with Dr. Errol King from Little Rock on Wednesday back in the days. so sad that this is how the hospital turned out. City of Brinkley do something.
It's a shame that this town and mayor are worried about them getting big paychecks that they want let these kind of jobs stay in Brinkley what are they going to do when everybody but dope heads and drunks are the only ones left
I started my nursing career their in 1977. My how health care has changed.
These pictures tell the story of how the city allowed this building to deteriorate to this degree. How sad. If the city does not own this building, then they need to contact the owner and/or have it condemned and torn down. The nursing home next to the hospital is where my mother was for a short while, under the care of Dr Williams. At the time it was pretty nice, that was around 1974.
Bobbie Ann it is a shame the way this building and the nursing home next to it has just sat there and been torn and picked completely apart !! I think somewhere our city officials completely let this building go rather than trying to save it and use it for something else !! I guess I shouldn't get started but it just makes me irate that voters recently passed a tax to build a state of the art new jail !!!!! Yes build a new jail and they will come / more offenders why not they will have the nicest… Read more »
Born there 1960. My parents returned to Chicago without me. I was eventually transferred to St. Vincent Hospital. My question: who named me? who were the Nuns with this responsibility and who Baptized orphan infants?
Where i was born… also lost a grandmother..great grandmother..and 2 year old cousin here. I remember the nuns there.
It’s a shame for such great buildings just go to ruin
Wow. I lived in Monroe. We had great doctors in our county. None better.
I would love to walk through those halls. Had a great grandmother work there in the 70s as a nurse.
Me and my 6 siblings born there , and I had my appendix removed there when I was 6. Heart breaking to see this.
That's the hospital three of my children were born. Jimmy, Ricky, and Phil Caudle were born was a nice keep Hospital. What happen ?
I was working there the day we closed in 1987
What happened that day? Why was everything left even important records it just seems odd InHave been through there and never understood why it closed and why everything was left.
Westworld hospitals inc. Took it over in a massive buyout in 15 states. Then they went bankrupt. I’m told its supposed to be closed for 40 years. Which doesnt make sense but it’s what everyone insists on.
Worked there after nursing school with my mom and sister, both nurses. My mom, Lois London worked there from 1974 until it closed. They re-named it Delta Medical Center from a contest they had and they selected her name. I was born there and my first son. Sad to see it this way. I would love to walk the halls. I can see my mom, Sister Elaine, Barbara Noah, Charlotte DePriest, Mary Vanderburg, Ron Burrow sitting at the nursing station.
Be great to use this building and the nursing home. Sad.