Five African American physicians opened Burrell Memorial Hospital in a house at 311 Henry St. in March 1915 and named it in honor of their colleague Dr. Isaac D. Burrell, who had died in 1914 after traveling by train to undergo surgery in Washington, D.C., because local hospitals treated only whites. Burrell Memorial became the region's largest medical facility for black patients, moved into a former school on this site in 1921, occupied a new building here in 1955, operated a nursing school that prepared African Americans for careers as registered nurses before closing in the 1930s, opened a school for practical nurses here in the 1950s, and closed in 1978.