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St. Joseph’s Hospital Kicks Off 75th Anniversary 01/28/2009 Flags and banners waving around the campus hint at something special happening at St. Joseph’s Hospital. This year, the not-for-profit organization celebrates 75 years of providing high-quality health care to the Tampa Bay community. St. Joseph’s Hospital was founded as a mission of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, who traveled from New York during the Great Depression to bring much-needed medical assistance to the people of Tampa. In the fall of 1933, the Sisters acquired a partially finished, three-story hospital on Seventh Avenue and Morgan Street. On October 1, 1934, St. Joseph’s Hospital opened, containing an emergency room, private and semi-private patient rooms to accommodate 40 patients, two large operating rooms, an obstetrical delivery room, a lab and pharmacy, kitchen and dining rooms and the best x-ray department in the state. By 1967, the hospital outgrew its facilities and moved to its current location, which was formerly a 70-acre cow pasture located on the corner of Habana and the not-yet-completed Buffalo Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd). Since that time, services and facilities have grown dramatically to include a children’s hospital, a women’s hospital, new patient care buildings and heart and cancer institutes. In 2008, the 883-bed hospital served more than 126,132 emergency patients, delivered more than 7,100 babies treated more than 40,000 children in the Steinbrenner Emergency/Trauma Center. Throughout 2009, St. Joseph’s is celebrating this milestone anniversary with a series of activities and events for the community as well as the sisters, physicians and team members who support the hospital. Highlights include the St. Joseph’s Hospitals Foundation Gala on March 7 and the Founder’s Day Mass and reception on October 1. Then, in early 2010, the hospital will thank the community for its continued support with the opening of St. Joseph’s Hospital-North, the first new full-service hospital in Hillsborough County in 30 years.