Located at 2601 N. Whittier Street in The Ville neighborhood, it was the first teaching hospital west of the Mississippi River to serve the city's Black residents.

A group of black community leaders persuaded the city in 1919 to purchase a 177-bed hospital (formerly owned by Barnes Medical College) in Mill Creek Valley at Garrison and Lawton avenues to serve African Americans.

Phillips again led the efforts to implement the original plan for a new hospital, successfully debating the St. Louis Board of Aldermen for allocation of funds to this purpose.

[3] Construction on the site began in October 1932, with the city initially using funds from the 1923 bond issue and later from the newly formed Public Works Administration.

The hospital was dedicated on February 22, 1937, with a parade and speeches by Missouri Governor Lloyd C. Stark, St. Louis Mayor Bernard Francis Dickmann, and Secretary of the Interior Harold L.

[1] After a 1955 order by Mayor Raymond Tucker to desegregate city hospitals, Homer G. Phillips began admitting patients regardless of race, color or religious beliefs.

Although some leaders in the black community opposed the idea (such as William Lacy Clay, Sr., then a city alderman and later U.S. representative for Missouri's 1st district), others accepted the notion.

However, on August 17, 1979, St. Louis abruptly closed all departments at Homer G. Phillips Hospital except for a small outpatient care clinic housed in an adjacent building.

The community responded with protests, and more than a hundred police officers were required to control the crowd and to escort remaining patients out.

[8][10] The next year, the hospital was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its significance in architecture, education and to black history.

[8] St. Louis area public hospital services were consolidated in nearby Clayton, Missouri, and the Homer G. Phillips complex was totally vacated.

[10] In 1988, developer William Thomas began negotiations to convert the former Homer G. Phillips Hospital into a nursing home, but these efforts failed when agreements to lease the property stalled.

[10] The renovation project, led by architects of the Fleming Corporation, cost more than $42 million and produced a 220-unit supervised facility for the elderly, named Homer G. Phillips Dignity House.

[12] In response to focus groups, the developers upgraded security measures at the site, including adding a perimeter fence, surveillance cameras, and remote keyless entry.

[14] These claims were dismissed by U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan when medical records revealed that one of the parents had given birth at a different hospital and had abandoned her baby.