Penrose-St. Francis Hospital Photograph Collection

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Collection NumberMSS 0290Description The Penrose-St. Francis Photograph Collection contains a variety of images of the facilities and staffs of both Penrose (in its various incarnations) and St. Francis Hospitals. Up until 1990, Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Health Center operated as two separate medical facilities run by different Catholic religious orders.

Established in 1887, the St. Francis Health Center was the first hospital in Colorado Springs. The hospital was founded by Civil War Veteran Dr. Boswell Preston Anderson, a physician for the Midland Railroad Company. The hospital was opened originally as a clinic to serve injured railroad workers, but after a train derailed near Leadville, Dr. Anderson and four Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration who had traveled west from Lafayette, Indiana, to join him to care for the workers, decided that the city of Colorado Springs needed a much larger medical facility. They raised $20,000 to build the hospital on a site in 1888 at 825 E. Pikes Peak Avenue at Prospect Street near downtown Colorado Springs. Over the ensuing years, St. Francis grew into one of the largest and most respected health systems in Colorado Springs. St. Francis operated as a full-service hospital until trauma services were relocated to Penrose Hospital in 1994 and the facility reverted to being a medical health center. The facility was closed in 2010 following the opening of the new St. Francis Medical Center in northeast Colorado Springs.

Prior to the establishment of what would eventually become Penrose Hospital, in 1890 the Glockner family opened a sanatorium in memory of Albert Glockner who died of tuberculosis at the age of 31. As one of the foremost lung specialists of the time, Dr. B. P. Anderson of St. Francis Hospital was the first superintendent of Glockner Tuberculosis Sanitorium. His assistant was Dr. Charles Fox Gardiner. In 1893 the Glockner family donated the sanatorium to the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio. In the early 20th Century, the sanatorium grew into an acute care hospital. Over the years, the hospital continued to add services and in 1939 it was announced that the Glockner Medical Facility would become the site of the Penrose Tumor Institute. Spencer Penrose saw a need for a cancer facility in Colorado Springs, where residents suffering from cancer could access state of the art treatment locally. In 1947, the hospital was renamed Glockner-Penrose Hospital to recognize the contribution of Spencer and Julie Penrose through the El Pomar Foundation. After Julie Penrose gave $3.2 million to the addition of a twelve-story tower completed in 1959, the name of the hospital was again changed to Penrose Hospital to honor the family’s generosity. The 70-year-old Glockner Hospital building was then razed to allow the construction of a parking lot for Penrose Hospital.

In 1990, the medical management organizations of The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Sisters of St. Francis of Colorado Springs were consolidated, resulting in Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Hospital coming under the umbrella known as Penrose-St. Francis Health Services.

First class of nursing students in front of St. Francis Hospital.

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Penrose-St. Francis Hospital Photograph Collection