Eugene General/Mercy Hospital

Mercy Hospital at 20th Avenue and Willamette Street on top of College Hill circa 1910

Across from the site of the old Civic Stadium, a pair of concrete steps leads up from Willamette Street to the sidewalk. This is one of the few physical remains of the former Eugene General/Mercy Hospital. A few houses north of here, a second set of steps to the hospital have been re-purposed for access to a residence.

Built in 1906 by a group of doctors and businessmen, the hospital was opened as Eugene General. By 1912, the hospital was having hard financial times, and was sold to the Catholic Sisters of Mercy. They renamed the facility Mercy Hospital and opened a nursing school. At the time of the purchase, the Sisters placed an ad in the local Polk's Directory:

"The building is situated on College Hill commanding a beautiful view of the City and surrounding country. The location is most sanitary and healthful, the slight elevation affording the best of drainage and atmospheric conditions. Though but a few minutes walk from the center of town and conveniently reached by the College Hill Car Line, the Hospital is entirely outside of the noise and dirt of the city."

​Indeed, a photo from 1910 shows that except for a few houses, the hospital is the only building standing on College Hill.

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Looking across farm fields at Eugene General Hospital (photo circa 1910) from somewhere in the vicinity of 18th and Patterson. The road at the extreme right of the photo is 20th Avenue ascending from Willamette Street.

​In 1928, the Sisters outgrew the Mercy Hospital site and moved to Pacific Christian Hospital (which evolved into Sacred Heart Medical Center and ultimately Riverbend Hospital). The hospital buildings sat deserted until being razed in 1940.

So where exactly were the hospital buildings? The image on the right shows the positions of the hospital building footprints (yellow), old road alignments (white) and the stairways from Willamette Street (green) superimposed on an aerial photo from around 2010. Those positions were established from a mid-1930's aerial photo. The image on the left is the same aerial photo with current street alignments labeled.