Santa Fe's Original Hospital, Repurposed for Hotel and State Offices
Paseo de Peralta at Palace Ave, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Drury Plaza Hotel Santa Fe operates in the converted complex; hotel rates apply. Exterior viewing is free.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored multi-story hospital complex in downtown Santa Fe, now a hotel with full accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1911 · Sisters of Charity Founding (1865) · John Gaw Meem 1953 Hospital Building · Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Marian Hall (1911 third floor) · Drury Plaza Hotel Adaptive Reuse
The Old St. Vincent Hospital complex in downtown Santa Fe was the oldest hospital in New Mexico. Its origins trace to 1865 when the Sisters of Charity arrived in Santa Fe from Ohio and opened a small adobe hospital near the Plaza. Over the following decades the institution expanded across multiple buildings, including an orphanage and a three-story brick building.
Marian Hall was built in 1911 facing the park next to the cathedral. Its third floor was used as a tuberculosis sanitarium, with the lower floors used for general medical practice. A four-story hospital building with 200 beds was designed by celebrated Santa Fe regional architect John Gaw Meem and opened in 1953 at Paseo de Peralta and Palace Avenue. The downtown hospital moved to St. Michael's Drive in 1977, where CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center now operates.
In 1978 the State of New Mexico purchased the downtown complex for $2 million and used several buildings for state-agency offices after renovations. La Residencia nursing home occupied the Villa Rivera portion of the complex for two decades beginning in 1983. In 2003 private investors purchased the buildings from the state, and Drury Hotels later purchased the property for more than $20 million for a multi-story hotel conversion preserving the historic exteriors. The complex now operates as the Drury Plaza Hotel Santa Fe.
Sources
Regional Santa Fe retellings of the downtown St. Vincent Hospital complex describe sounds of crying babies floating through halls on what was historically the fourth-floor maternity ward, and the sound of a child running through the halls. The original Shadowlands narrative attached these accounts to the period after the hospital had transitioned to nursing-home use (La Residencia in Villa Rivera, 1983 onward) and to the state-agency occupancy of the broader complex.
The Marian Hall building (1911) housed a tuberculosis sanitarium on its third floor, and the broader Sisters of Charity hospital served as the main medical institution in north-central New Mexico for over a century. These layered uses provide the historical anchor for the retellings.
With the complex now operating as the Drury Plaza Hotel Santa Fe and as restored mixed-use space, the haunted reputation is part of Santa Fe local history rather than active hotel marketing.
Media Appearances
Book a room at the Drury Plaza Hotel Santa Fe, which occupies the restored downtown St. Vincent Hospital complex. The four-story 1953 main building, designed by John Gaw Meem, has been preserved as part of the conversion.
Walk the area around the cathedral and the historic hospital complex. The 1911 Marian Hall is among the surviving structures; the Sisters of Charity history is part of Santa Fe's institutional heritage.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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