Legacy Emanuel Medical Center
Legacy Emanuel Medical Center
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Legacy Emanuel Medical Center

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Legacy Emanuel Medical Center

Legacy Emanuel Medical Center is a hospital located in the Eliot neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1912, it is one of only two Level I trauma centers in the state of Oregon, and home to the only burn center between Seattle and Sacramento. The hospital is also home to the Life Flight Network (MEDEVAC), the first of its kind instituted on the U.S. West Coast. The 554-bed facility provides a full range of services, including conventional surgery, heart treatment, critical care, neurology/stroke care/brain surgery, and care for high-risk pregnancies. Legacy Emanuel also houses the Randall Children's Hospital. It is one of the hospitals in the area where gun shot victims are routinely brought in.

Originally opened as Emanuel Hospital by the First Immanuel Lutheran Church of Portland, the facility's original location was a historic Victorian home in North Portland (at the site of the hospital's present-day location). A nursing school was established in 1913, after which a new building was constructed in 1915 to accommodate the increasing influx of patients.

The hospital saw multiple renovations and developments over the following several decades. In the 1970s, Emanuel Hospital began a controversial expansion project which displaced a significant number of homes and businesses in the Albina neighborhood adjacent to the hospital grounds. In 1983, the hospital was operated by HealthLink, but in 1989, merged with Good Samaritan Hospital to form the Legacy Health System, after which it became known as Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

Established as Emanuel Hospital in 1912 and started by Reverend Carl J. Renhard of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland. A misspelling of the name 'Immanuel' occurred and was not discovered until all official documents had been signed as 'Emanuel'. The decision was to retain the 'official' name even though misspelled.

The first location of the hospital was a three-story Victorian home on Southwest Taylor Street, nicknamed the "Gingerbread House" by local residents for its appearance. Nurses lived on the third floor of the home, and because it contained no elevator system, patients were required to be carried upstairs. The cost of major surgery at the hospital was $15 (equivalent to $500 in 2025). In 1913, a nursing school was founded at the hospital under the supervision of Lutheran nun Sister Betty Hanson, who also served as the supervisor of the Columbia Medical Conference.

In December 1915, the hospital moved to a new building it constructed for $20,000 at Stanton and Commercial Streets in Albina, its current location. At that time it had 135 beds. Emanuel added a new, four-story nursing school residence in 1921 at a cost of $60,000. A $264,723 new hospital building opened in February 1926; the old building was subsequently converted to a maternity ward, which was overseen by Alice Swanman, a nurse who was a member of the hospital's second graduating class. In 1931, another expansion took place, bringing the hospital to a total of 207,000 square feet (19,200 m2).

In 1947, the hospital saw a record 4,328 births. In 1951, the Emanuel Institute of Pastoral Care was established, which became the first accredited Clinical Pastoral Education program in the western United States. The following year, the original 1915 hospital building was demolished to make room for renovations, which brought an additional 128 beds to the hospital (at that time making a total of 584). In 1955, DeNorval Unthank, M.D. joined the hospital staff. In 1929, Unthank was the third African-American doctor to practice medicine in Portland, and would later serve on the hospital's board of directors beginning in 1971.

The hospital opened a ward exclusively for the treatment of teenaged patients in 1957, the first of its kind in the United States. The ward received coverage in the Saturday Evening Post in 1961. The same year, the hospital officially closed its polio ward. In 1960, the hospital begin to seek expansion options to mitigate overcrowding, and hired a consultant from Minnesota to survey the land. By 1967, the hospital was planning an expansion plan consisting of a 19-block medical complex, estimating a $12.25 million cost. Per a 1970 report, the hospital had one of the largest obstetrics practices in the Pacific Northwest, with 3,650 births taking place in the hospital that year.

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