In 1882 when the Deseret Hospital was dedicated, LDS Church official Angus M. Cannon noted that "this beginning would be looked back to as the germ of something much greater, which would reflect credit upon all engaged in it."
Despite the dedicated work of the management and staff — most of them women — the hospital, which moved to larger quarters in 1884, was beset by financial difficulties from the beginning. It managed to stay afloat only until 1890.
In the overall scheme of things, the hospital itself proved to be little more than a noble experiment. But the seeds it planted are bearing fruit more than a century later.
The old Deseret Hospital left a legacy, not only of medical care, but also of compassion, love and dedication that still inspire us today, said W. Boyd Christensen, the driving force behind a project that will re-create the Deseret Hospital at This Is The Place Heritage Park.
The hospital will serve a dual purpose at the park, he said, not only providing insight into medical care on the frontier, but also housing part of the antique quilt collection put together by his wife, Jean, over the past 30 years.
The desire to find a permanent home for those quilts, where they could be enjoyed and appreciated by the general public, has been a longtime goal of the Christensens.
"If you travel to any of the living history parks around the country — Old Sturbridge in Massachusetts, Williamsburg in Virginia and others — you find that one thing they all have is an antique quilt collection," said Jean. "Quilts are such a part of life in initial communities; they are such a part of the pioneering experience. We thought there should be a display here at This Is The Place."
Boyd serves on the board of directors for the nonprofit foundation that operates the park. And as the Christensens began thinking about the best way they could contribute, they became aware that a hospital was part of the long-range plans. "It seems like a natural place to display quilts," said Boyd. "They are both all about comfort. We thought we could put quilts on beds as well as on the walls or in other displays."
As they began to explore possibilities and make plans, another goal surfaced. "We didn't want this to be just a building. We wanted it to be a living resource," said Boyd, "a place where visitors — adults, youth, children — can come together and learn about the history and the legacy of both medicine and the art of quiltmaking, but where they can also learn and practice modern day arts and crafts."
The hospital will serve as a home base for the Utah Quilt Guild, which Jean helped found in 1977. Guild members will serve as docents at the hospital when the park is open, but the building will also be a place where they can have meetings, exhibits, store equipment, work on quilts, teach classes, bring in youth groups to work on service projects and do a variety of other activities, said Diane Bruehl, president of the guild. "It will be wonderful. The guild has never had any kind of headquarters."
Guild chapters throughout the state have helped to raise money for the project, adds Sherrie Kasteler, guild liaison. Lots of groups made "opportunity quilts," which were raffled off to raise funds for the museum, said guild past-president Tamara Boren.
But if the quilters in the state have been heavily involved, so, too, has the medical community.
Members of the Collegium Aesculapium, an association of LDS doctors, have not only added their financial support, but retired members of the group will also work as docents, telling the story of pioneer medicine.
This project helps put them in touch with their roots, said Dr. George Van Komen, president of the Collegium. "The thing that always impresses me when I look back is how well these early doctors took care of the sick with the knowledge they had. There wasn't surgery. There was little knowledge of infectious diseases. But they did render compassionate service."
And that's something to remember in today's world, he said. "We now live in a world of laser surgery and MRIs, a world where you can have your gall bladder taken out one day and return to work the next. But we still need the sense of attachment to the profession that these early doctors had."
Looking at the work done at the Deseret Hospital "can remind us why we went into medicine," said Van Komen, who is a general internist at Bryner Clinic.
And visitors, who will get a chance to see some of the primitive conditions those early doctors worked under, will get a new appreciation for how far medicine has come.
Ellis Shipp, who was one of the original doctors at the Deseret Hospital "made incredible personal and family sacrifices," said Milton Shipp, one of her descendants. "Her life was one of selfless service. Their desire, as is the desire of physicians today, was to help make life better. And they really did that. It's nice that she and the others will be honored and remembered here."
Ground was broken for the new Old Deseret Hospital on Sept. 17. It will be finished for the opening of the 2003 season. The project is being privately funded.
"The challenge," said Bill Garff, president of the construction firm, "is to make it look authentic and still meet 2002 building codes. We have a lot of special wood details that we'll try to match to make it look its age."
Designs for the building, which will be 85 feet by 35 feet with three floors, were done by FFKR Architects. "It's always fun to work on a historical project," said W. Elledge Bowers III, "because you learn so much history." In this case, they had pictures that showed exactly what the building looked like — from the front.
"But knowing the symmetry of architecture in those days, we can pretty well guess what the back was like. Our job is to introduce all the niceties of today's life — air conditioning, electrical power — and still have it resemble the building of yesterday," Bowers said.
That building had quite a history, said project superintendent Scott Simmons. It was a residence at first, then a hotel, then an academy, then the hospital. "It's going to be fun to watch it come out of the ground."
The Old Deseret Hospital will be a great addition to the park, said Paul D. Williams, CEO and president of the heritage foundation. "We're excited with what the Christensens are bringing forth. It's not often you get multiple stories in one building. Quilts were a huge component of pioneer life. And that, combined with the medicine, represent an important part of Utah's heritage."
E-mail: carma@desnews.com