Sarah Francelia Bell Home At 1111 Rosalie St.

[Highrise Tower]

Protected Landmark Designation Report

The Sarah Francelia Bell Home, established to provide living assistance for indigent women, was built in 1922 at the bequest and through funds provided by Sarah Francelia Bell in her will in 1911. 

The Methodist Hospital movement had its beginning when Dr. Oscar L. Norsworthy established the Norsworthy Hospital in 1908. He later decided to pursue only medical research and made a generous offer of the facility to the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. After a few years of fundraising, the plan materialized when the Trustees chose James Ruskin Bailey, a Houston architect, who was related by marriage to one of the Trustees, and the project was underway. They chose a site for the Home adjacent to the hospital and let the contract for the construction to Central Construction Company on August 16, 1922. Thus, the Sarah Francelia Bell Home and the Methodist Hospital movement was initiated. 

The Sarah Francelia Bell Horne Building remains today as the only physical remnant in Houston, Texas of the first endeavor to establish the Methodist Hospital in Houston, now recognized as one of the best medical facilities worldwide.