About the former St. Vincent Hospital building







“Benedictine sisters began their work in the area that is now the Crookston diocese in 1899, when Mother Scholastica Kerst of Duluth opened St. Anthony’s Hospital over a store in Bemidji. In 1900 she arrived in Crookston to assess the need for a hospital in this lumbering center. After some study she opened Riverside Hospital in a frame building on Pine Street west of the Great Northern Railroad, on the bank of the Red Lake River. The first medical insurance in the state was sold to lumbermen for $2.00 a year. In 1902 the sisters purchased land on Seventh Street and there built St. Vincent’s Hospital.” (The Benedictine)

In 1901 the Diocese of Crookston was created from dividing the Diocese of Duluth. The Benedictine sisters from Duluth started and staffed many schools and two hospitals. In 1919 Bishop Timothy Corbett asked the Mother Eustacia Beyenka to come to Crookston with sister companions to establish a new priory. “St. Vincent’s Hospital served as the community convent for two years.”

Of interest is that Lindbergh’s father was taken to Crookston to receive care at the Villa St. Vincent.

The addition to St. Vincent’s Hospital was built in the 20’s or 30’s under the direction of Bishop Corbett. The new wing was exactly matched to the brick of the hospital. See picture with the porch above.

In 1950 the new St. Francis Hospital replaced St. Vincent’s Hospital for acute care, and St. Vincent’s became a home for the elderly under the direction of Bishop Schenk.


When St. Francis converted to a board-and-care home in 1973, a new east wing was added to St. Francis for long-term care patients. In 1978 the patients were moved here from St. Vincent’s and the whole complex was named Villa St. Vincent.










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