AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — As the High Plains turned the corner into the 1920s, the area and the city of Amarillo saw an explosion of activity after oil was discovered.

This led to many organizations and community institutions forming, with many celebrating 100 years or more this year.

Oil discovered in the Texas Panhandle in 1921 led to significant growth in Amarillo.

“In the 1920s, you were really seeing the oil boom and a lot of people wealthy with oil money and that added to with what we already had going for the cattle industry and these big ranches, so there was a lot of people in Amarillo that had money to invest and fortunately the founders of Amarillo saw that time as a great period of growth,” said Beth Duke, Center City Amarillo executive director.

Duke said that many buildings in Amarillo were built during the mid-1920s and were completed before The Great Depression.

“Once the Depression hit, of course, that was a setback for the entire nation and we are so lucky that many of our buildings were built in that pre-Depression era,” said Duke.

Duke added that geography plays an important role in Amarillo’s history.

“Amarillo has its pioneer spirit because we were so far away from Dallas and Denver and even Oklahoma City if we wanted a symphony, we had to start it ourselves, if we wanted a library, opera, we had to start it ourselves, and I think that is one thing that sets Amarillo apart is our geography encouraged us to create our own institutions, instead of relying on always traveling these far distances to see that,” said Duke.

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, within two decades, Amarillo’s population would increase from 9,957 in 1910 to 43,132 in 1930.

In the middle of said growth, members of the Amarillo community would establish staples in the fabric of the yellow city from a hospital to various nonprofits.

Throughout 2024, institutions like Northwest Texas Healthcare System, the United Way of Amarillo Canyon, the Amarillo Children’s Home, and the Amarillo Symphony are celebrating 100 years in the Amarillo community.

Northwest Texas Healthcare System

Northwest Texas Healthcare System Marketing Director Martha Del Toro said when Northwest Texas Hospital opened in 1924, the surrounding area relied on Amarillo for a lot of things, including medical care.

“There was a need to have a place to provide healthcare, a higher level of healthcare. Back then there was tuberculous, there were already mental health patients, and there were a lot of needs in the community and that’s what prompted leaders at that time to open a hospital along with a school of nursing,” said Del Toro.

Northwest Texas Hospital was the first public medical facility in Amarillo. St. Anthony’s Hospital, which opened in 1901 was a private facility.

Along with the opening of Northwest Texas Hospital, was the opening of the Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing in 1924.

“There for a long time, the Northwest Texas Hospital had a School of Nursing, and historically, you can go back and look at how many, you know there were classes of nine that were being graduated, which is crazy, you know to think, they were just formulating the curriculum, following physicians, learning the craft of being a nurse in healthcare… the Northwest School of Nursing was the leader not just here in Amarillo, but statewide and sometimes nationwide and sometimes some of the practices they were doing. The nurses, the nursing students had to live on campus and that was their complete focus,” said Del Toro.

Del Toro added the mission for Northwest has not changed in the past 100 years.

“When the doors opened in 1924 to today, the mission has always continued to take care of the people in our community. It’s been evident from the day they opened that door to today and that’s still our focus and that’s what we want to continue to be for our community,” said Del Toro.

3/22/1924	Northwest Texas Hospital opens
1924	Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing opens
1929	The Great Depression
1935	The Social Security Act
1941	NW School of Nursing Cadet Nursing Corp begins
1942	First male nurse admitted
1944	Polio epidemic
1940s	Penicillin becomes widely available, after discovery in 1928
1954	SALK vaccine
1957	Article IX of the Constitution of the State of Texas designates the first hospital district-Amarillo Hospital District
1959	Northwest Texas Auxiliary formed
1960s	NW expansion to 320-bed hospital and 100-bed psychiatric hospital
1965	Amarillo Medical Center groundbreaking
1969	Amarillo College- AND program begins
1969-1970	Cardiac Care and Infant intensive care units open
1970	LVN program begins (1st in the state and 2nd in the nation)
1972	First Trauma Center-Amarillo Emergency Receiving Center
1974	First CAT Scan
1976	Killgore Children’s Psychiatric Unit and Pickens Early Childhood Development
1982	Move to Coulter Street
1983	Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing transitions to West Texas State University
1994	New Emergency Room and Critical are open
1996	Northwest purchased by Universal Health Services
1997	Trauma Designation
1998	LIFESTAR medical flights begin
1998	NICU naming for Dr. Mubariz Naqvi
1999	Level III Trauma Designation
2003	Heart Hosptial and Children’s Hospital opens
2007	Women’s Imaging Center opens
2016	First in the state to offer robotic surgery with DaVinci Surgical System
2023	Level II Trauma Center
2024	Celebrate 100 Years- A Century of Care

Both the former Northwest Texas Hospital and Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing buildings on SW 6th are still standing. The Northwest Texas Hospital School of Nursing is currently the Meridian Apartments managed by the Downtown Women’s Center and Northwest Texas Hospital has been turned into The Larsson Apartments.

The Amarillo Symphony

In 1924, The Amarillo Philharmonic Club, one of at least three women’s music clubs active in Amarillo, presented its first concert featuring a “Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra” in October. This concert would lead to the Amarillo Symphony. The musicians known as the “Original 12,” were headlined by Grace Hamilton, according to the Amarillo Symphony.

“Before they started the symphony concerts, they would perform, I think they were weekly concerts at Twilight Music House…on Sunday afternoons, where different ladies of the membership would play pieces. Duets. Solos. Little chamber pieces and then how the orchestra got its start was they would open and close the show or a philharmonic orchestra would open the concert, then a philharmonic choir would close and I don’t know whatever came of the philharmonic choir. But that’s how the Amarillo Symphony got started,” said West Texas A&M University Associate Professor of Music History Dr. Kimberly Hieb. “Then, about two years later in 1926 after their first performance in 1924, they had their first like stand-alone concert where it was just the Amarillo Philharmonic on the program.”

According to the Symphony, by 1926, the Philharmonic Club had a full-time conductor, Ellis B. Hall, who stayed with the Philharmonic until 1934.

Hieb said it’s very unique to have a symphony started by women.

“Most American orchestras are founded by like a group of community musicians or a philanthropist or a business person, so to have it founded by a women’s music club, these are like volunteer workers essentially is a pretty big deal.” said Hieb. “It just shows the dedication of the community…the community wants to have an orchestra here, they can see the value in it and you can see that in all the documents related to the Amarillo Symphony’s history. The city does not see the symphony as a frivolous entity, they see it as a key element of their community.”

Larry Lang, executive director of the Amarillo Symphony added right from the beginning they had a lot of interest from the community.

“The orchestra grew quite rapidly and got a professional conductor pretty early on and the community really rallied around them and there was some money in our community at the time with the cattle business and oil business and everything else that was going on here that created all these great institutions and I think they are still here, right,” said Lang. “I think there are a lot of people who want to go to things. We kind of have to create our own community here. We are kind of in the middle of nowhere, especially back in 1924, so I think it’s nice people have rallied around the opera, the little theatre, and the ballet, and the orchestra, and the art museum. All the fun big city things we have.”

Hieb added that at times the Amarillo Symphony faltered, but the community rallied around to save it.

“There have been moments the Symphony has almost failed, definitely flailed, and the people who have stepped up to save the orchestra are always local people, local musicians, or people who are interested and dedicated to having a symphony here in Amarillo. There was a really big moment in the 1970s when the orchestra was just having such a hard financial time and it was the women of the Amarillo Symphony Guild who actually saved the orchestra. They put on this massive auction, it was actually in two parts. There a closed-door auction one night and then the next night, it was open to the public and they auctioned off all kinds of things and made, almost $100,000 that night, which in 1975 was a really big deal to have happened. One of my favorite things they auctioned off was a Santa Fe caboose,” said Hieb.

Amarillo Police Department

As Amarillo was entering 1924 and growing, they needed a way to keep law and order among the population—enter the Amarillo Police Department, which will be celebrating 110 years this year.

“The equipment has changed, and the laws have evolved in the last 110 years but the job of policing has not changed. It’s still serving your fellow human being and it’s been that way since the beginning of time and it will be that way ’til the end of time,” said Jimmy Johnson, Amarillo Police Department assistant chief.

According to the Amarillo Police Department, John Snider served as the Amarillo City Marshall from 1910 to 1914. On May 20, 1914, a City Ordinance was passed creating the official Amarillo Police Department. John Speed was appointed as Chief of Police for the newly founded department. Snider served the city a second time when he was appointed as Chief of Police in 1923.

When the department was founded, there were five officers employed to keep law and order in the city limits. The first Amarillo officers were patrolmen mounted on horses. The officers had to purchase his own horse and feed but were reimbursed for feeding expenses, according to APD. In 1915, the first motor vehicle afforded to the department was a Model T Ford, which was converted into a paddy wagon. Another Model T was added later and was used by A.L. Giles to patrol East Amarillo. Within the first 10 years, APD grew from five officers to 53 officers.

The first police radio communications came to the department in 1935, according to APD. Malcolm Clack built the base station and the vehicle radios. At the time, the dispatcher could talk to the patrolmen in their vehicles; however, they could not talk to the base station. There were four vehicles in 1936 that Clark built two-way radio communication for. In 1945, he built two-way radios for the motorcycles. Clark also installed the first closed-circuit television in the police department in 1966. One of the early attempts at public relations at APD came in the early 1930s. Sgt Elmer Green hosted a noon radio program on station WDAG. According to APD, Green would give the police news of the day from the police station.

The Amarillo Police Department has had many police stations in its 110-year history. The Old City Hall was a three-story red brick building with a basement and the basement housed the city jail and police station. The police department first moved to 609 S. Pierce in December 1955 and then relocated to 200 SE 3rd Ave. in 1992, where it is still located today.

According to the Amarillo Police Department, the roster of Chiefs of Police includes John Speed, J.B. Wheatley, Charles Davis, Jim Keeton, John Snider, Clark Cain, CJ Blackwell, Horace Gaither, W.R. McDowell, Albert “Sid” Harper, Ralph “Rusty” Rhodes, Wiley C. Alexander, Paul Hulsey, Lelond “Lee” Spradlin, Jerry Neal, Robert Taylor, Ed Drain, and currently Chief Martin Birkenfeld.

Johnson also talked about how the department continues to break barriers in the department, such as Ed Drain being the first African American to lead the Amarillo Police Department.

“I think that’s a sign of a healthy department when you are still breaking down those barriers after all this time and there will always be barriers to break as society evolves and we evolve as human beings and I think that is a good thing that your police department is following that trend of continuing to break those barriers,” said Johnson.

Amarillo Children’s Home

Another nonprofit celebrating 100 years in 2024 is the Amarillo Children’s Home and Executive Director John Forbis said the organization started from humble beginnings.

“The pastor [Dr. R. Thomsen] of First Presbyterian Church was having some dinner with some close friends [including civic leaders Guy C. Saunders and Allen Early, Sr.] and he looked outside the diner and saw kids on the street who seemed distressed, so they called them in and fed them dinner and got to know their story and realized that they had been abandoned, that they didn’t have a home to go to. They took care of their immediate needs for the night, fed them dinner, and got them a safe place for them to go, but then that began a conversation of how many kids in this area have a story like that,” said Forbis.

On March 1, 1924, the doors opened to the Amarillo Children’s Home.

“When we were originally founded, we were in an old military academy and it was a large building, that was able to house kids and provide a shelter for them, but in the 1940s, the organization saw the need for the kids to have a home experience, to know what it’s like to live in a house with a mom, so in the late 1940s, Amarillo Children’s Home bought the property were on now and began to build houses, which we call cottages and we began to build cottages on the campus and had a house mom in the house and the vision and foresight, which was really ahead of it’s time was really to provide the kids the experience of living in a home,” said Forbis. “To sit at a table, to have siblings, to have a mom. So, over the decades, that has evolved, we now have house parents, we have a house mom and a house dad, we have people that come in and provide care 24/7 for our kids, but just that core heart for kids who don’t have a safe place to call home can find that here at Amarillo Children’s Home.”

That old military academy Forbis mentioned was the Amarillo Military Academy, which opened on September 1, 1910, and was known as The Lowery-Phillips School, according to the Window on the Plains Museum located in Dumas. It was a private boarding school, named for its founders, B. G. Lowery and F. F. Phillips. According to the Window on the Plains Museum, in the spring of 1916, the school closed because of a lack of financial support. The building was later abandoned and eventually demolished in 1966.

Forbis said ACH continues to evolve to help the children of Amarillo and the surrounding area for the next 100 years.

“For 100 years, we have looked at how do we best meet the needs of kids in our community and so we are continuing to evolve to see what ways can we further meet the needs of kids in our community, whether that’s adding programs for kids that are aging out of foster care, what can we do to transition them to great success when they live Amarillo Children’s Home,” said Forbis. “So adding programs on campus that will serve that age group of 18 to 21 to prepare them for college and support them during college and a career outside of Amarillo Children’s Home. We also want to find ways to grow and build the number of foster homes in this community, so what does our part look like to go out in the community and establish other foster homes that would take in a kid that’s in need, so they can stay here in the Amarillo area.”

Forbis said that the community’s support of these organizations for decades is what makes Amarillo great.

“Just to hear the amount of organizations in this town that are celebrating 100 years, I think it is humbling to think back on at that time in Amarillo just the amount, the foresight of the people of the time to see there was specific needs in the community or certain organizations that they wanted to put in place, so for the people 100 years ago in Amarillo to see ways to make the community better and then follow through and enter in on that and begin things that has lasted a hundred years is remarkable,” said John Forbis, Amarillo Children’s Home executive director.

Anniversaries still to come this year include the Amarillo Police Department on May 20, the United Way of Amarillo Canyon this fall, and the Amarillo Symphony in October.