The origins of Riverside Hospital can be traced to 1901 when the Nashville Colored Sanitarium was opened in an effort by the newly-organized Southern Union Conference to extend Adventist medical missionary work to African Americans in its territory. Dr. Lottie C. Isbell, newly graduated from American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek, took charge of the small sanitarium, with its treatment rooms on North Cherry Street, in 1902. The treatments she offered included alternatives to conventional medicine, such as hydrotherapy. However, this non-traditional approach proved controversial in Nashville, home to several Black institutions of higher learning, including the prestigious Meharry Medical College. The sanitarium relocated to the Hillcrest area on White’s Creek Pike, but this endeavor, too, was short-lived, failing to attract sufficient clientele.

After marrying Pastor David E. Blake in 1907, Dr. Isbell-Blake returned to Nashville for another medical missionary initiative under the auspices of the Southern Union Conference. She and her husband, who also became a physician, opened Rock City Sanitarium in February 1909, utilizing equipment from the earlier treatment rooms, including bath fixtures, electric light cabinet, and needle sprays. Once again, though, the response was insufficient and the sanitarium closed after the doctors Blake moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1912.

Aspirations for a strong Adventist health care institution for African Americans in the South did not die but remained dormant for 15 years until given new life by educator and philanthropist Nellie H. Druillard (1844-1937). She had become affluent through mining and real estate investments in South Africa, where she had served as a missionary for a number of years. After her return to the United States, Druillard worked with educational reformers Edward A. Sutherland (her nephew) and Percy T. Magan in founding Emmanuel Missionary College in Berrien Springs, Michigan, in 1901. Continuing her collaboration with Sutherland and Magan, Druillard helped fund the founding of Madison College and related self-supporting institutions near Nashville in 1904, and managed the institution’s finances for its first ten years.

Harry E. Ford, renowned for building up the laboratory and X-ray department at Hinsdale Sanitarium near Chicago, became business manager at Riverside in 1936, marking the transition to an all-Black medical staff and administration. Dr. T. R. M. Howard, a graduate of the College of Medical Evangelists at Loma Linda who had just completed a residency at Provident Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, became medical director, succeeded by Dr. Carl A. Dent, another Loma Linda graduate, in 1939.

Riverside Hospital became an institution accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals and expanded to a four-story 85-bed facility in 1948. An adjoining school for practical nursing was also started in 1952. This school was the only one in mid-Tennessee which accepted African American students. The first class of five women graduated in 1953, starting Riverside’s contribution of licensed African American nurses to the nationwide healthcare workforce.

In 1972, a new $3 million building was built for the hospital, with modern systems for examination and communication and a 150-bed capacity. This, and the addition of more professional buildings for physician’s offices, allowed Riverside to begin offering 24-hour emergency service on its 50th anniversary in 1977.

Riverside Hospital became a nationwide hub for African American professionals to perfect their craft, with specialties including internal medicine, surgery, radiology, and more. It also provided consultancies from professionals based in the local Meharry and Vanderbilt medical centers. Riverside also prided itself with its state-of-the-art clinical, X-ray, and radioisotope laboratories. The Riverside operating room was also modern, with the newest equipment of the time.

While becoming a fully-modernized hospital, Riverside also continued to offer and make advances in the alternative treatments of the Seventh-day Adventist health message. For example, two physiotherapists, a field with few practitioners, came to serve at Riverside in the early 1950s. They provided services such as whirlpool baths, Russian baths, electrotherapy, and salt rubs. The hospital also emphasized the importance of a healthy diet and built a tennis, shuffleboard, and volleyball court to encourage exercise.

Among the many notable medical professionals who served at Riverside Hospital, one example was Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown. By 1954, she was the first female African American surgeon in the South. In 1957, she joined Riverside’s staff and became chief of surgery. Brown stayed with Riverside for 24 years, while also serving as a clinical professor at Meharry Medical College and as an educational director for the Riverside-Meharry Clinical Rotation Program.

Another was Dr. Carl A. Dent, Riverside’s longest-serving medical director. He was the first African American intern at Los Angeles County General Hospital in California. After completing his medical training, he served as medical director at Riverside from 1939-1945, and again from 1950-1965 (officially, president of the medical staff for the years 1955-1965).