Lexington’s first hospital was started by nuns and still operates today

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

Just nine years after the end of the Civil War, a group of nuns started “the seeds of the ministry” for Saint Joseph Hospital.

Originally located at 320 Linden Walk, near Rose and Maxwell streets, the hospital struggled for years until a group of sisters devoted to caring for others took over.

But the story of the hospital actually starts in 1812, the year the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth was founded in Bardstown. The sisters saw their calling in teaching, nursing and caring for orphaned children, and adopted a habit that reflected their pioneer heritage — a cape, apron and sunbonnet.

The ministry founded the first Catholic academy, Saint Catherine Academy in White Sulphur. Established in 1823, the school never gained more than 40 students, so it moved to Lexington in 1833. It was one of two Catholic academies in all of eastern Kentucky.

In 1873, Father John Bekkers, pastor of Saint Paul’s Catholic Church, wrote to the sisters about his idea for a hospital in Lexington.

His vision was to establish the first medical hospital in Lexington that would serve patients regardless of religion, race or ability to pay. However, despite his urging and the sisters’ experience in nursing, there did not seem to be a way to support such an institution, so the sisters turned him down.

In 1874, the Sisters of Mercy accepted his offer and came to Lexington from St. Louis to make Bekkers’ dream a reality.

For three years, the sisters tried to make the hospital work. They held a fundraising picnic in Woodland Park and raised $500 (about $14,600 in today’s money). They sold excess furniture to raise money. There was even a city commission formed to help the struggling hospital stay afloat.

But efforts to move the hospital out of poverty failed. Once again, Bekkers appealed to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

This time Mother Columba, the Mother Superior, agreed to take on the project, and on Oct. 2, 1877, five nuns from the Sisters of Charity arrived at the hospital, led by Mother Catherine Spalding, Sister Euphrasia Stafford and Sister Michael Leo. According to a history provided by the hospital, that first year, the sisters treated 195 patients at a cost of about 50 cents per day (or about $15 today).

In 1878, the sisters moved the hospital to Second Street, where it remained until the 1959 move to its current location on Harrodsburg Road.

In 1918, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth opened a nursing school at the hospital. While the school was eventually phased out in 1964, more than 500 nurses were trained there. Now, Lincoln Memorial University Caylor School of Nursing is located on the Saint Joseph Hospital campus to educate a new generation of nurses.

The hospital has become known as “Lexington’s Heart Hospital,” officials with the hospital said, performing the first heart catheterization in central Kentucky in 1954 and the first open heart surgery in Lexington in 1959.

The hospital continues its care for patients regardless of race, religion or ability to pay as Bekkers intended. In collaboration with the American Cancer Society, Saint Joseph Hospital opened the second cancer clinic in Lexington that provides care for those with symptoms of cancer who may not be able to afford treatment.

In 2024, Saint Joseph Hospital and Saint Joseph East awarded $235,000 in grant funding to six community organizations addressing substance use disorders, mental health issues and healthy lifestyles as part of its commitment to caring for the community beyond the walls of its hospitals and clinics.

Additionally, the Saint Joseph Health Foundation provides free mammograms and cervical cancer screening to uninsured or underinsured women through its Yes, Mamm! and Yes Cerv! programs.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.