Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center

History

Founded in 1855, as the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul, Depaul was Norfolk's first civilian and public hospital. The hospital was originally located on Church and Wood St. in the downtown Norfolk in the home of the late Miss Ann Plume Behan Herron. When Herron died of the yellow fever in 1855 being a wealthy patron, willed the house to the sisters, for the purpose of founding a hospital. The Hospital of St. Vincent DePaul was incorporated in 1856 by eight Daughters of Charity during the yellow fever epidemic. The Sisters of the Daughters of Charity came to Norfolk in 1839 to run St. Mary's Orphan Asylum and care for the sick and dying during the yellow fever epidemic in Norfolk.

Starting with just eight rooms a clinic for the poor was added in 1892, and a nursing school began in 1893. In 1899, a fire nearly destroyed the hospital that had grown to 150 rooms, but it was rebuilt and enlarged in 1901.

In 1944 the hospital was renamed Depaul Hospital and moved to its present location at Kingsley Lane and Granby St in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. After the hospital moved the basement and annexes of the old hospital housed classes for the Norfolk Division of the Virginia State College (now Norfolk State University) until 1958. Depaul is the oldest Catholic public hospital in Virginia.

In 1996, the Sisters of Bon Secours extended the Daughters of Charity ministry by assuming the sponsorship for DePaul.