Historical Preservation
The Storied History of 737 Fawcett Ave.
Comprehensive Mental Health Center of Tacoma-Pierce County (dba Comprehensive Life Resources) has a long lineage of providing medical care to the greater Tacoma community. Comprehensive Health’s predecessor, Doctors Hospital, was born out of a need to provide affordable health care to the working class. Over the years, the medical institution has been closely associated with the nationally famous Dr. Albert Bridge, Group Health, Pierce County Health, and MultiCare.
Doctors Hospital was founded in 1923 as the Bridge Clinic and Hospital. The seemingly inexhaustible Dr. Albert W. Bridge created a juggernaut of medical practice prior to the Second World War. With Bridge Hospital in Tacoma as its centerpiece, Dr. Bridge owned and operated medical clinics and pharmacies in a dozen logging communities and timber towns in Western Washington. He even owned a health spa. His patients were not his clients—his clients were the companies that employed his patients. Under his business model, Dr. Bridge would contract with an employer who would deduct a certain portion of an employee’s wages in exchange for medical care needs. This plan generated a steady stream of guaranteed monthly income for his practice. His entrepreneurial spirit caught the attention of Time Magazine, who claimed Dr. Bridge was “a medical tycoon” of sorts (Time Magazine). The Second World War created enormous pressure on the overworked and understaffed Dr. Bridge. He fell victim to a stroke in 1943, but not before chartering Mary Bridge Hospital for Children in honor of his beloved mother. Over the next six years, Albert Bridge scaled back his ambitions.
Dr. Bridge’s business model was financially successful. Those who studied Dr. Bridge’s medical contracting practice from afar wondered if his business model would be equally successful when owned and operated as a non-profit. Not-for-profit medical facilities were not new. The Sisters of Providence had operated non-profit hospitals in Washington territory for nearly a century. The Sisters first arrived in 1858 “and helped establish a day school, an academy, and a hospital” (Rockafellar, 1990:23). However, the founders of the Pierce County Medical Bureau sought to blend the best of Dr. Bridge’s profitable contract practice under the umbrella of a non-Ecumenical administration. Prior to the death of Dr. Bridge, the Pierce County Medical Bureau purchased Bridge Hospital and later changed the name to Doctors Hospital. It is important to note that what remained of Dr. Bridge’s unsold holdings would later become MultiCare and Mary Bridge.
The original Doctors Hospital was located directly across the alley from the current Comprehensive Life Resources facility. This hospital was ideally situated on Market Street with theaters and city government offices located just outside its doors. The Pierce County Medical Bureau purchased Bridge Hospital in 1944 and began operating under the new name “Doctors Hospital” at this location from 1946 until the new facility opened on Fawcett Avenue in 1967. The original Doctors Hospital (that faced Market Street) did not have sufficient space to meet the increased demand for patient needs. James Feutz was the administrator of the hospital when a four-year planning process began for a larger building to be located on Fawcett Avenue. Late in 1965, Dr. Cyril B. Richie, president of the Board of Trustees of the hospital, and James Feutz, hospital administrator, announced that construction would begin early in 1966. By July 1967, the new Doctors Hospital was ready to be occupied. According to Feutz, the move into the hospital was accomplished by staff with some outside muscle. The staff helped move patients and beds, getting them settled into their new rooms. The old hospital building now sat empty, except for the drugstore on the lower floor. A year prior, the trustees had discussed using the old hospital for long-term care patients.
The new Doctors Hospital is a four-story, neo-colonial building that opened to a grand celebration on July 30, 1967. The public was invited to see the 70-bed hospital with the latest technology in surgery wards. The bright white building inspired confidence that the facilities and patient care were clean and professional. Woodard Construction built the structure based on designs drafted by E. L. Mills. James Feutz, who oversaw the construction, became the first Doctors Hospital administrator.
Architect Edgar “Eddie” L. Mills was incredibly gifted and largely self-taught, having only received one year of formal training. By the time Mills received the commission for Doctors Hospital, he was an accomplished and award-winning architect headquartered in Tacoma. His crowning achievement was the construction of Cheney Stadium in 1960. Born in 1921, Mills’ career is evident throughout Pierce County with a variety of mid-century schools and churches. Sadly, Doctors Hospital was the last commission Mills would see constructed. He was killed in a murderous rampage later that year by a jealous husband who alleged that Mills was having an affair with his wife. Mills was 46 years old.
Just five days later, news of hospital administrator Feutz’s death shocked the medical community. James B. Feutz was President of the Pierce County Hospital Association. Feutz was a ruggedly handsome Second World War veteran who served in the Air Corps as a pilot. Feutz was an active member of Tacoma society and an avid golf and tennis player. Feutz died after a short illness on October 20th, he was 45 years of age.
According to a press release issued by the Pierce County Medical Association, the main floor of the new building featured the reception area, waiting rooms, administration offices, therapy rooms, a laboratory, and a chapel. The upper two floors each accommodated four surgery suites and 35 convalescent beds. The surgery suite had a staff lounge for doctors and nurses. The basement floor could accommodate 60 vehicles and housed hospital “services such as laundry, kitchen, break room, and staff locker rooms.” Although Doctors Hospital provided a wide range of medical services, the clientele was largely middle-class workers (PCMA Bulletin).
Six months after opening, electrical workers inadvertently put Doctors Hospital into the spotlight of the local news. Electrical contractors performing tests on the newly installed transformers in the basement of the building inadvertently caused a city-wide power outage that lasted most of that afternoon. The outage even interrupted a speech by the mayor.
The News Tribune, Nov. 21, 1976
By the 1970s, the demographics had grown considerably older, with fully 60% of visitors being over the age of 60. As a demographic, the baby boomers dominated every aspect of day-to-day life. By their sheer numbers, they also put a strain on domestic services. This includes hospital beds for which there was an acute shortage (Bailey). It was also during this period that Pierce County Medical Association began entertaining the idea of merging operations with Tacoma General Hospital and Mary Bridge. The talks would drag on for nearly a decade.
Baby boomers also created a strain on drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. In 1974, the Washington state legislature passed a law requiring alcohol treatment centers in every county. Instead of criminalizing alcoholism, it was treated like a disease. Incentivized by an infusion of $800,000 for a building remodel program, Doctors Hospital leased space to the Pierce County Health Authority. Pierce County Health ran a drug and alcohol rehab center, which occupied the entire third floor of Doctors Hospital. Doors to the treatment center opened in 1975 (Pyle, 1975). It was during this building remodel project that the two-story tall privacy screens were added to the front of the building.
The courtship between Tacoma General and Doctors Hospital ended in July of 1979 when it was announced that Tacoma General had merged with Mary Bridge and Doctors Hospital. The name of the new administration was changed to Consolidated Hospitals. Merger plans called for a central board of directors and combined administration for the three institutions, but each would retain its individual identity. This newly formed organization would later become MultiCare. Consolidated Hospitals added services to Doctors Hospital such as women’s reproductive health, outpatient surgery, and eye care while maintaining existing surgery and other general medical services.
The early 1980s brought an economic recession that impacted the Puget Sound region harshly. Administrators at Consolidated Hospitals knew they either needed to retool Doctors Hospital or sell it. To improve their odds of making the correct decision, they decided to try both approaches. First, they changed the hospital to an outpatient surgery facility. During that time, Group Health Cooperative, headquartered in Seattle, hoped to gain a toehold in Pierce County and put in an offer to purchase Doctors Hospital (Workman). Group Health got its start in Seattle in 1945. It was the first to offer pre-paid medical care. Despite having the term ‘cooperative’ in its name, it was not a member-owned institution (Crowley). After heady negotiations, the Group Health offer was rejected.
Consolidated Hospitals reinvented itself as MultiCare in 1984. But MultiCare was not the only name that changed. The Doctors Hospital building became the ‘Doctors Pavilion’ (NT, Oct. 13, 1985). For three years, it remained an outpatient surgery hospital. But in 1987, MultiCare changed the name of the facility to Day Surgery of Tacoma and added a drug and alcohol dependency ward to the hospital (Gordon). With the name change, Doctors Pavilion received a remodel. Its interior spaces, patient rooms, and waiting areas received a much-needed refresh. Patient care emphasis switched from medicine to wellness. Lower prices were charged to patients with the new day surgery concept so that patients could return home quicker. Day Surgery of Tacoma relocated to the newly dedicated Baker Medical Center on K Street when it opened in 1989. Staff from Doctors Pavillion moved to the new Baker building. From 1990 onward, the building on Fawcett housed more and more MultiCare administrative functions.
In 2018, MultiCare moved its administrative functions from Tacoma General Hospital to a newly purchased facility at 802 A Street, across from Fireman’s Park. The new office complex allowed MultiCare to begin to centralize its administrative operations. The move also allowed MultiCare the room to expand Tacoma General Hospital without having to undergo major building renovation expenses. The centralization of administrative functions came to a head in March of 2020. The Coronavirus pandemic brought with it an order to ‘work from home.’ With the order to telecommute in place, the Doctors Pavilion building was closed. Although telecommuting posed an initial hardship, by November of that year, MultiCare had deemed the social distancing experiment a success. With the passage of the pandemic, MultiCare declared the structure surplus and put it on the market with an asking price of $6 million (Cockrell).
Comprehensive Life Resources of Tacoma-Pierce County purchased the building in March of 2022 from MultiCare. From 2022 to 2024, the building underwent significant changes to accommodate the new use. The most dramatic change came to the primary façade of the building, where the late-addition privacy screens were removed to bring more ambient light into the care facilities. In the spring of 2024, Comprehensive Life Resources opened its doors to the public.
A New Chapter for 737 Fawcett
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