Renovation Underway at St. Joseph's Hospital
The major renovating and updating program that has
been going, on at St. Joseph of the Pines hospital in South
ern Pines for the past two years made notable progress
during 1964, reports Sister* M. Virginia, the hospital’s ad
ministrator.
During the past year, the hospital has completely re
modeled and renovated two floors, adding this work on
the third and first floors to similar work done on the sec
ond floor in 1963. Two large fire escape towers have been
btfclt—one at each end of the building. A new entrance
on the south side, with adjoining driveways and a new
parking lot east of the hospital, have been constructed
and mercury lights have been installed in the public area of
the hospital grounds.
cftST OF THE PROGRAM has been around $230,000
in the past year, it was reported, bringing to about $300,
000 the amount spent on improvements at the hospital in
the past two years.
In addition, it was announced that work began recent
ly on a separate project not being financed by hospital
funds: the conversion of the former circular entrance lob
by to a chapel, given by Mrs. Leon Baker of Southern
Pines in memeory of her late husband, Dr. George W.
Matheson.
Because of the influx of patients at this time of the
year, Sister Virginia said, work on the long-range renova
tion program of the hospital is now confined to the non
patient areas of the building.
TENTATIVE PLANS call for continuing the renova
tion program in the coming year, with a re
working of the fourth floor of the five-story
structure as the main anticipated project.
A major improvement affecting the whole
building is a new hot and chilled water heating
and air conditioning system that will give year
around temperature control. Another change
completed in the past year, benefiting all pa
tients’ rooms, is piping of oxygen, from an
outside source, so that it is immediately availa
ble for any patient in the hospital.
On the main (first) floor of the building
that was the Pine Needles Hotel before it be
came a hospital in 1948, the lobby and office
section, along with other facilities have been
completely worked over. Terrazo floors have
replaced the original wood flooring. Heavy
vinyl wall coverings have been installed, along
with marble paneling that is the gift of an an
onymous donor. On this floor, there are a new
snack bar, patients’ library, administrative fa
cilities and waiting areas.
Work on the third floor during 1964 was
similar to that done on the second floor the
previous year: widening of the hotel-size door
ways to hospital size, permitting beds to be rol
led in and out of the rooms; terrazzo floor and
baseboards throughout, a new call system for
patients, to summon nurses and centralized TV
service to each room. The floor was remodeled
to provide a new nurses’ station, waiting area
for visitors near the elevator, a treatment room
and doctors’ dictating office.
THE FIRE AND SMOKE protective and
preventive measures installed at St. Joseph’s
have been approved by the North Carolina In
surance Commission and the Medical Care
Commision. The large, external tower stairways
were added as a supplement to formerly exist
ing fire escapes and are wide enough to easily
permit evacuation of non-ambulatory patients.
The original fire escapes also remain.
The new towers are fabricated of heavy
gauge steel with metal treads resting on 12 inch
vertical beams. Spandrel beams were added to
carry the weight of lacy masonry screening that
adds beauty to the practical structure.
An additional measure is addition of two
sets of fire doors on each floor corridor. These
doors have automatic closers that can separate
each hall into three isolated sections, to confine
any possible smoke or fire hazard to a mini
mum of space.
The various fire protection measures put
the hospital in the highest possible category of
fire safety, it was stated.
THE NEW ENTRANCE in the center of the
building’s south side is the originally designed
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IN NEW LOBBY — Shown is the main entrance lobby at St. Joseph’s Hos
pital, just inside the new south entrance, with new terrazzo floor and
marble paneling. The whole first floor has been completely renovated.
(Story and photographs through the courtesy of The Sandhill Citizen, Aber
deen, N.C.)
front entrance to the building, but has never
been used as such until the recent remodeling.
A new portico extends out to the oval paved
driveway that encloses an area almost as large
as the building and connects with an access
road from the Southern Pines-Carthage high
way.
The new parking area is located east of the
hospital. So that the extensive grounds of the
hospital would not be defaced by an unsightly
parking lot, a median strip was left, and this
strip, as well as a deep border around the lot
and drives, is being planted with holly, dog
wood, mountain laurel and other shrubs.
The building became St. Joseph of the
Pines Hospital in 1948 when it was acquired
by the Diocese of Raleigh and was staffed by
and put under the direction of Sisters of the
Third Order of St. Francis, a Catholic nursing
order with headquarters at Maryville, Mo. Sis
ter M. Virginia, the present administrator, was
one of the original group of Sisters coming here
to take over the hospital at that time.
IN APRIL, 1962, the hospital ownership
was transferred to the Order by the Diocese of
Raleigh, and the Order now both owns and
operates the facility.
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104 E. Jordan Street
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149 West Avenue
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333 Indiana Avenue Phone 725-836T
Winston Salem, North Carolina
NEW ENTRANCE — This'aerial view shows the new driveways and entrance (center) to St.
Joseph’s Hospital. The former entrance was at extreme left of building as seen here. The
access road at right is also new, leading in from the Southern Pines-Carthage highway.
A new parking lot is out of the picture, toward the right. (Hemmer photo)