FOLEY – For hundreds of Foley residents born between 1936 and 1958, life began on the second floor of the brick building that still stands on the southwest corner of Laurel Avenue and McKenzie Street.
Now, the Holmes Medical Museum is seeking baby pictures of the children delivered at the site or by the doctors or nurses who worked there.
The Sibley Holmes Memorial Hospital was the first hospital in Baldwin County. It closed in 1958 when South Baldwin Hospital, now South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, opened. The building is now the Holmes Medical Museum.
During the time the hospital operated, many of the children who came into the world in South Baldwin County were either born at the facility or were delivered at home by the doctors and nurses who worked there.
The Medical Museum is creating a Baby Wall that will feature pictures of the “Holmes Babies”
Anyone born at the hospital, or whose family members were born at the site, is asked to provide a copy of a baby photograph of the person born there. The photo should be smaller than 5-inches by 7-inches and a copy that the museum can keep. Submissions should also include the name of the baby at birth and the year that the person was born.
For example, one photograph already provided to the museum is that of football legend Kenny Stabler, who was born at the hospital in 1945.
Pictures can be dropped off at the museum on West Laurel Avenue from Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. or mailed to Holmes Medical Museum 111 West Laurel Ave., Foley Al 36535.
The hospital was established by Dr. W.C. “Buddy” Holmes and his wife, Philomene, who was also a nurse, in 1936. The hospital was named for Dr. Sibley Holmes, the father of W.C. Holmes, who died in 1933.
Sibley Holmes was also mayor of Foley and a state senator. His medical practice was in the same building where the hospital was later established.
The hospital is open from Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.