St. Mary's Hospital of Emporia opened on this location in 1884 under the Sisters of the Order of St. Francis at Lafayette, Indiana. For many years it was the only hospital between Kansas City and Wichita, sustained not only by members of Sacred Heart Parish but by residents of the entire Emporia area. In 1928, a new St. Mary's Hospital replaced the original building at 15th Avenue and State Street in Emporia. The White Cross at this memorial site was part of that hospital until it closed in 1991. The hospital's caregivers included Catholic nuns, Franciscan priests, doctors, nurses, and others who dedicated part of their lives to its work. The Catholic nuns who administered it were the Sisters of St. Francis of Lafayette, Indiana, later of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Mishawaka, Indiana, from 1884 to 1963; the Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa, from 1963 to 1985; and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, Kansas, from 1985 to 1991.