BILLINGS - The first Hospital in Billings celebrated its beginnings on Monday.
St. Vincent Healthcare marks its start as Aug. 7, 1898, when a cornerstone was laid for its first building at Division Street and Broadwater Avenue.
That land where the original hospital stood is now Billings Central Catholic High School.
Soul Funk Collective played at a special picnic at Grandview Park to commemorate the start at St. Vincent Hospital.
"Today is a super fun day for us here at St. Vincent's," said Jen Alderfer, hospital president. "We're celebrating our 125th anniversary."
Alderfer says with the hospital's changes in more than a century, the one thing that has stayed the same - its mission.
"The Sisters came together and they answered the calling in partnership with the Billings mayor at the time and Billings first Catholic priest at the time," Alderfer said. "And they really saw a need to serve the poor and the vulnerable through providing hospital care."
The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas had already started hospitals in Montana, and invited Dr. Henry Chapple to be part of a proposed hospital in Billings.
"He finished medical school in Toronto, Canada, and then came down here at the invitation to begin a hospital with his sisters," said Sister Eileen Hurley, Sisters Of Charity Of Leavenworth.
Sister Hurley serves on the Intermountain Health Montana Market board, which helps ensure that the Sisters' ministry remains.
"They continue the mission, vision and values of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth," Hurley said. " When you walk into this hospital, you see it on the walls, but you most likely experience it in all the people."
A lot of the history is on display and St Vincent will celebrate its 125th anniversary for the next year.
"St. Vincent has a long-standing legacy of providing faith-based whole-person care," Alderfer said. "And we really feel that the Sisters brought that charge to us. And it is our responsibility to live out that legacy."
"That's how the mission and ministry continue, through each one of us of how we do what we do and how we treat one another, " Hurley said. "Which is with kindness, humility, simplicity and charity."
A St. Vincent spokesperson says the hospital will offer History and Heritage Tours the first Monday of each month during the 125th celebration year.
The tours will meet in the main visitor lobby at 1 p.m.
