b'CooaassttaallBBeennddCCoommmmuunniittyyCDespite a population of some 7,000, Corpus Christi had no hospital when Dr. Arthur E. Spohn moved to town in 1895. Dr. Spohn, like all local physicians, was required to perform medical procedures and surgeries in private homes, without electricityandindimlylitconditions, and without the sanitary facilities need-ed to avoid infections. He found support fromprominentSouthTexanslikethe Klebergs and the Kenedys to build the regions first hospital, which opened as the Spohn Sanitarium on North Beach. It was taken over by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 1905.Also built after the turn of the cen-tury was the Corpus Christi Golf & Coun-try Club, featuring a new, nine-hole golf course, right on North Beach! The club was situated where the Radisson Hotel is now, and was inaugurated with a round of play by none other than the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, who visited the Coastal Bend on October (Above) Nueces Bay produced over 1022,1909.PresidentTaftshalf-brother, million oysters from huge beds in 1907,CharlesPhelpsTaft,operatedtheTaft along with over a million pounds of fish. AnRanch and was, as one would imagine, oyster reef bridge connected Rincon to Sannamesake of the town of Taft. He hosted Patricio County in the late 1800s; (Middle)the president on the ranch headquarters the Corpus Christi Golf & Country Club wasat La Quinta, near Ingleside, where he dedicated with a round of golf by Presidentwatched roping exhibitions, went rabbit William Howard Taft in 1909, who is picturedhunting, and played a round of golf on a on a tour of Corpus Christi during his Octo- course built specifically for his visit.ber visit (Lower/Left); (Lower/Right) PresidentMembers of the country club decid-Taft inspecting a horse at the Taft Ranched to sell the North Beach property with headquarters in La Quinta near Ingleside.its nine-hole course and build a new, 18-The ranch was operated by the presidentshole, golf course west of the city in what half-brother, Charles Phelps Taft, the son- is now refinery row. The buyer was L.G. and-law of rancher David Sinton. Collins, who converted the country club building into a first-class bathhouse that hosted sun seekers and bathers in Corpus Christi Bay. By this time, the finest home on Rincon, built by D. Mahoney in 1891, had been purchased by Dr. W.E. Carruth and was operating as a guest house, the ShellBeachSanitarium(yes,anodd-sounding name this day-in-age)by all accounts,NorthBeachhadcomeback and was thriving by the end of the cen-turys first decade.A group of some of the most promi-nentSouthTexanscametogetherto construct a worthy replacement for the ill-fated Miramar on North Beach. Billed as a fireproof hotel located on the safest beach in the area, the Corpus Beach Ho-62 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEWinter 2018-19 TheCoastalBend.comTheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFEATURED: The Stories that Mattered 127'