Morningside Hospital (Oregon)

Morningside Hospital
Promotional postcard from 1925
Geography
Location	Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States
Organization
Hospital type	Psychiatric hospital
History
Founded	1883
Closed	1968
Links
Website	www.morningsidehospital.com
Lists	Hospitals in Oregon

Morningside Hospital was a psychiatric hospital in Portland, Oregon, United States. For nearly sixty years the hospital sat on a 47-acre parcel at the junction of SE Stark Street and 96th Avenue. Formerly agricultural land, the site was developed as a psychiatric hospital complex and working farm in 1910. After World War II, many of the farmers in the surrounding area retired and their land was developed into suburban communities. The rising population increased consumer demand and the under-construction interstate freeway promised easy access.

In 1970 the site was redeveloped as a shopping mall and Adventist Medical Center.

The hospital was founded in 1883 by Dr. Henry Waldo Coe. In 1905, Coe purchased a building from the Lewis and Clark Exposition and moved it from the exposition site in Northwest Portland to Mt. Tabor, where it was converted into a psychiatric hospital. Five years later, Dr. Coe moved operations to its final location. During its early years, the hospital went by several names including Dr. Coe's Nervous Sanitarium, Mindease, Mt. Tabor Sanitarium and Crystal Springs Sanitarium.

In 1904, Morningside was awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior to care for mentally ill and mentally handicapped patients from the territory of Alaska, who would constitute the bulk of the hospital's patients throughout its tenure. Patients had previously been sent to the Oregon Insane Asylum. Between 1905 and 1968, nearly 5,000 patients were admitted to Morningside, not including the roughly 40 admitted monthly on behalf of Multnomah County, which used the hospital for emergency care.

After Dr. Henry Waldo Coe's death in 1927, Morningside was taken over by his son, Wayne Coe. Although not a medical doctor, Wayne Coe acted as hospital administrator and eventually as Chairman of the Henry Waldo Coe Foundation.