O'Reilly General Hospital: "Hospital with a Soul"
Before there was Evangel University, there was O’Reilly General Hospital.
Built as a temporary institution to serve soldiers wounded during WWII, the Springfield, Missouri Army hospital had more than 6,000 beds at its peak. Doctors at O’Reilly treated more than 50,000 patients during its 5-year existence. The hospital closed in 1946 after the war ended. It briefly reopened as a veteran’s hospital and was permanently shut down in 1952.
That left 155 acres with 258 empty Army barracks, which were declared excess by the U.S. Government. The Assemblies of God, headquartered in Springfield, was successful in its bid for 58 acres, and claimed the land for Evangel College in 1954.
That’s how the “Hospital with a Soul” turned into the “Miracle College.”
The name
O’Reilly hospital was named for Gen. Robert Maitland O’Reilly. O’Reilly was a hospital cadet in the Union Army during the Civil War, a field surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Indian campaigns and Spanish American War, and a researcher on tropical hygiene during the building of the Panama Canal. He was appointed Surgeon General of the Army in 1902 and served in this capacity until 1909.
Brig. Gen. George B. Foster was the commanding officer at O’Reilly. “General Foster was an old style Army doctor, all for spit and polish,” said Congressman Durward G. Hall in the October 8, 1994 edition of the official O’Reilly newspaper, The Shamrock. “He was very proud of his hospital. He insisted on having a good staff. He was highly regarded … he had great integrity, insisted on good discipline and was rather demanding.”
It was Foster who dubbed O’Reilly “The Hospital with a Soul,” as he aimed for the hospital to be a place that restored hearts and souls as well as bodies.
The facility
O’Reilly was a state-of-the art hospital in its day. The 12 operating rooms had the latest equipment available. Surgeons performed plastic surgery, orthopedic, neurosurgery and maxillofacial surgeries on wounded soldiers as well as many more life-saving operations.
O’Reilly was huge compared to the hospitals of today. For comparison, a 1,000-bed hospital would be considered very large today. O’Reilly had six times that many.
In addition to offering medical treatment, O’Reilly was also used as a training facility for the Army. More than 16,000 enlisted personnel were trained as laboratory, X-ray, medical/surgical and dental technicians in the technician school at O’Reilly. The hospital also housed prisoners of war for a time.
The end
Despite O’Reilly’s significance during the war, the hospital was not meant to continue in operation. The barracks had been built for temporary use only, and the facility was simply too large for the Army to continue using as a veteran’s hospital. The lights were finally turned out on December 2, 1952.
The wrangling for ownership of the grounds and buildings began in earnest. The Assemblies of God, which had just decided to start a new liberal arts college — the first of its kind for the Fellowship — petitioned for it and was awarded 58 acres. Over time the college acquired more of the land. Today, the 80 acres that used to serve wounded soldiers is home to a fully accredited Christian university.
And those temporary barracks? The university turned them into classrooms, offices and dorms and used them for decades. Over time, new brick buildings replaced the old barracks, and the last one was torn down on July 3, 2009. See our Photo Blog of the demolition. Today they have been replaced with modern facilities, though the original O’Reilly boiler house is still in place and functioning.
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