Riverside Sanitarium and Hospital

Riverside Sanitarium Hospital was a medical institution founded in 1901 in Nashville, Tennessee. It primarily served the city's African-American community from 1927 to 1983. It was the first black Seventh-day Adventist medical facility in the United States, providing modern healthcare to African Americans who faced discrimination in mainstream hospitals. It simultaneously attracting physicians, nurses, and patients from across the country. Riverside Sanitarium Hospital played a role in advancing medical opportunities, was a pioneer for modern medicine, and served as a leader in alternative medical therapies. It grew from five small rooms in 1901 into a hospital by 1927 with a 50-bed brick building. Then it expanded to a modern four-story facility with 85 beds in June 1948, and further developed into a three-story hospital with 290 beds in 1976.