1115 E. Terrell Ave.

This home was built by Dr. Riley Andrew Ransom, Sr., in 1921. It is the first of three Terrell Avenue homes to have a Historical Marker placed on them.

 

Dr. Ransom moved with his wife Ethel Blanche Wilson of Gainesville, and son Riley Andrew Ransom, Jr. to Fort Worth from Gainesville, Texas, to open a new Hospital he built, which included a Nurse’s Training School.

 

Booker T. Washington Hospital was the first 20-bed facility for African-Americans in Texas. It was also one of only three African-American owned hospitals in the U.S. accredited by the American Medical Association. It was well-known for its state-of-the-art medical equipment, fully equipped laboratory, on-site food preparation with a dining room, and Nurse’s quarters. The hospital went through several name changes before it was renamed to honor his late wife Ethel Blanche Wilson of Gainesville until it closed in 1949.

 

Dr. Ransom was a member of the Fort Worth branch of NAACP, the YMCA, Chair of the committee on Health and Sanitation, Chair of the Social Disease Committee of the Volunteer Health League, First-Aid Instructor for the American Red Cross of Tarrant County, and member of the Lone Star Medical Association and Masonic Lodge.

 

Dr. Ransom died in 1951 at the age of 64.