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| Fort Lauderdale Beach Hospital circa 1960 |
“Come by boat or canoe,” read an unconventional
invitation to opening festivities at Fort Lauderdale Beach Hospital in July 1957. The hospital was organized in 1956 to serve older patients as
well as “the chronically ill and the handicapped.”
The 64-bed, four-story facility was
once the Blue Water Hotel. Some who were cared for at the hospital probably felt
they were at a vacation spot. It overlooked the Intracoastal Waterway, offered an
outdoor patio with covering, dockage and other amenities. Headed by Dr. Louis
Amato, the waterside hospital opened with elevators, laboratory and X-ray facilities
and equipment for physical therapy. According to Amato, Fort Lauderdale Beach
Hospital would operate as a supplement to others in the area, not as a surgery
center. Surging growth in Fort Lauderdale’s population, particularly retired residents,
elevated the area’s need for additional hospital beds.
In 1964 the Katie Lambert* Foundation
purchased Fort Lauderdale Beach Hospital. It was operated by Beach Hospital
Auxiliary as a nonprofit, community-supported entity. The organization added about
20 beds, expanded radiology and lab capabilities and built a new entrance and
emergency room. Renovations were drawn up by William H. Crawford, tapped “Architect
of the Year” by the American Hospital Association.
Meanwhile, Fort Lauderdale’s population continued to grow. So did its medical community. Doctors with diverse ambitions—and politics—eventually led Fort Lauderdale Hospital in a different direction. In 1969 plans to move the hospital to a new beach location materialized. The hospital transitioned to operate as the North Beach Hospital at 2835 N. Ocean Boulevard (A1A) and opened in 1973.
Cleveland Clinic was
granted permission to operate an outpatient clinic at North Beach in 1988, which paved the way for their expansion to a permanent full-scale facilty in Weston.
By the late 1980s Broward County had
nearly twice as many hospital beds as needed. Hospitals entered a paradigm that
continues today across the country: national corporations buying up hospitals to create hospital “systems.”
So byzantine are hospital stories today with their buyouts and consolidations, etc., that their histories are best presented as tables of chronologies rather than narratives.
North Beach closed by the mid-to late 1990s and today it’s the site of a condominium or two with an ocean and Intracoastal view. A drive past the original site at 125 Birch Road will reveal another occupant: Springbrook Gardens … a condominium. (Residents of this condo were forced to evacuate Sept. 27, 2024 because the building was deemed unsafe.)
Copyright © 2023, 2024. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Sources:
Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 5, 1956
Fort Lauderdale News, July 24, 1957
Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 13, 1964
Fort Lauderdale News, April 9, 1969
Sun-Sentinel, Oct. 9, 1970
Sun-Sentinel Jan. 9, 1989
Sun-Sentinel, April 27, 1989
Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 14, 1990
Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 21, 1995
Sun-Sentinel, Dec. 20, 1997
Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 27, 2024