17-05-2025
75th anniversary celebration set for St. Martin de Porres Hospital, now Allen Health and Rehabilitation
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — A 75th anniversary celebration for St. Martin de Porres Hospital — now Allen Health and Rehabilitation — is set for Saturday.
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Mobile Archbishop Thomas Rodi will celebrate mass on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, located at 454 Charleston St.
People who were born at St. Martin de Porres are invited to attend the service.
Following mass, attendees will go to Allen Health and Rehabilitation for a chapel dedication and homecoming reception.
The hospital laid down roots in 1941 when Catholic medical workers set up a clinic in Mobile. They sought to provide maternity healthcare for black women, which was extremely limited at the time.
In 1950, a more substantial facility was built and named after St. Martin de Porres, a Peruvian saint of mixed African descent.
The facility was one of the first hospitals in Alabama to employ black nurses and physicians, fostering a rare biracial medical staff in the South during Jim Crow. It brought the medical advances of the 20th century to the African American community of Mobile for the first time.
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After the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1969, desegregation rendered the facility moot. In 1971, it was repurposed into the Allen Memorial Nursing Home.
Thomas Boni and Evan Marr contributed to this story.
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