Good Samaritan Hospital NC road marker recognition 

LEVINE MUSEUM OF THE NEW SOUTH

Good Samaritan Hospital, North Carolina’s first health facility for Black patients, in an undated photo. The building was demolished in 1996.

Good Samaritan Hospital’s legacy has a new recognition. 

The Charlotte hospital, the first in North Carolina to treat Black patients, will be commemorated May 28 with a state road marker sponsored by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The dedication is 11 a.m., at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 2020 W. Sugar Creek Road. The installation is later in the day.

“For many of us, this moment is deeply personal,” said Juan Whipple, founder and owner of Queen City Tours and sponsor of a marker petition for the hospital since the mid-1990s. “Some were born there, some worked there, and others simply knew it as a symbol of dignity and hope during difficult times. After a 30-year journey, I am grateful that future generations will finally see Good Samaritan Hospital recognized as a permanent part of Charlotte and North Carolina history.”

Good Samaritan, which stood at the corner of Mint and Graham streets from 1891-1996, is now the site of Bank of America Stadium. A local historic marker sits next to the stadium.
Jane Renwick Smedberg Wilkes, Good Samaritan’s benefactor, moved to Charlotte around 1855 and treated Confederate soldiers as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War. Afterward, she was elected president of the Women’s Aid Society of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where she co-founded St. Peter’s Hospital, a whites-only facility. 

In 1882, Wilkes launched a campaign to raise money for a hospital to serve Black patients and by 1888 had the funds to buy land for Good Samaritan, which opened three years later to house 20 patients. In 1903, the hospital opened North Carolina’s first nursing school for Black students and in 1925, capacity was doubled. Construction of a new wing in 1936 increased it to 100 patients. 

“Good Samaritan Hospital served generations of Black Charlotteans during segregation, yet for decades its story remained largely invisible,” Whipple said. “This dedication is more than a marker — it is a permanent public acknowledgment of the patients, workers, nurses, doctors, and families who helped build Charlotte despite enormous barriers.”

Good Samaritan became a temporary large-scale trauma center on July 27, 1911, when a passenger train packed with 912 Black passengers crashed into a freight train in Hamlet, about 80 miles east of Charlotte.

Eighty-three of the most seriously injured people were transported Good Samaritan – the closest hospital for Black patients – for treatment. Black and white doctors and nurses treated the injured, saving 80 patients.

Two years later, Good Samaritan was the scene of one of Mecklenburg County’s three confirmed acts of racial terror lynchings. On Aug. 21, 1913, John McNeely as admitted to the hospital for treatment for a gunshot wound after exchanging fire with a police officer. Five days later, 35 armed white marauders raided the hospital, dragged McNeely outside and shot him. No one was arrested.

In the 1950s, Black Charlotteans pushed to desegregate hospitals – and close Good Samaritan, which was considered substandard compared to Memorial Hospital (forerunner to Carolinas Medical Center) and Presbyterian Hospital. 

In 1959, Good Samaritan’s medical school was closed and two years later, the hospital was sold to the city of Charlotte, where it was renamed Charlotte Community Hospital. Like Charlotte Memorial, Charlotte Community treated Black and white patients, albeit it in segregated wards. 

Charlotte Community was converted into Magnolia Rest Home in 1982 and was demolished 14 years later to make room for the Carolina Panthers’ 75,000-seat stadium. 

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