Okmulgee Colored Hospital

The Okmulgee Colored Hospital was built in 1923 and occupied in 1924. It was the first colored hospital to be opened in the state of Oklahoma. The building housed 18-20 beds and living quarters for a staff of 6-7. The hospital remained open until around 1956 when the city opened a ward for black patients in the basement of the city municipal white hospital. In 1984 the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places described as the “oldest facility of its type in Oklahoma which remains intact.” The building has been vacant since the 1990s. The Okmulgee Colored Hospital serves as a monument to past accomplishments by the African American community in the face of enormous adversity. Now vacant, its history has, in the twenty-first century, come full circle. Embraced now by the community of Okmulgee, the building will hopefully become the home of a museum and multi-cultural center promoting better understanding of the community’s rich and diverse heritage.