The Flu: The Adelphian Hall
The Hospital That Was Never Meant to be a Hospital
The story of the women’s Adelphian Club, which would become Alameda’s field hospital during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic
One afternoon, on a beautiful day in August of 1908, the women of the Adelphian Club - and a good number of other supporters, onlookers, and well-wishers - gathered to lay the cornerstone of a new premises they had worked tirelessly to build. For years they had been meeting in rented rooms that were just never quite right, never big enough for their numbers, or beautiful enough, no matter how much furniture, or art, they had scavenged from their own homes to make the club the haven they hoped for. This new building would finally be a permanent place for them, a place where speakers on a plethora of subjects could come teach them about paintings, or nutrition, or current events. Where they could organize community events, and have holiday parties, plays, concerts.
And so on that August day, people made speeches, and there was - with a sense of homecoming - a ceremony. A few months later, when the building would be finished, and they could move in, they would have the chance to relax, and settle in, knowing that they had a dedicated space, one that could not be taken away, unless by act of God.
The act of God was coming. It would be called the Spanish Flu..
