Griffin Memorial Hospital

Griffin Memorial Hospital is located at the end of East Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma. The hospital was originally started as High Gate College, a girls' school established by the United Methodist Church, South in 1890, one year after the settlement of Norman. With competition from the University of Oklahoma, High Gate College closed its doors in early 1895 and was soon bought by the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company. In 1915, the State of Oklahoma bought the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company and renamed the institution Central State Hospital. In 1953, the hospital was renamed Griffin Memorial Hospital. Under the supervision of Dr. David Griffin, the hospital grew to over 30 buildings and three farms in its first 40 years. With a change in institutional care in the 1960s, the state built a Community Health Care Center on the hospital grounds. Today, Griffin Memorial Hospital has few institutionalized patients and little resembles the thriving establishment of the early 20th century.