Mercy Hospital Holds Gala Centennial Bash

The biggest brouhaha of the weekend was given, not inappropriately, in a brewery.

On Saturday, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center rolled out a red carpet on the same sidewalk where workers at the old Mission Brewery used to roll out the barrel.

The renovated building near Old Town, now called Mission Brewery Plaza, was built in 1913 and recently gained an entry on the National Register of Historic Places. The complex is scheduled to be turned into a collection of shops and eateries.

Mercy deemed the brick structure sufficiently dignified by age to be the site of the gala celebration that marked the hospital’s centennial. Mercy’s actual 100th birthday followed two days later on July 9.

None of the event’s organizers had an exact tally of the crowd--all the public areas were, relatively speaking, jammed to the rafters--but most agreed that upward of 700 guests showed up to salute the dowager among San Diego health care providers.

And the guest list was an unusually inclusive one, since the party was--most surprisingly for these times--simply a party, rather than a fund-raiser. Chief among the invited (some of whom were among the more than 200,000 graduates of the hospital’s nursery who collectively are known as “Babes of Mercy”) were representatives of local institutions, municipalities and businesses whose founding predated Mercy’s 1890 opening.

Oddly enough, one of the oldest organizations represented (by Executive Director James Vaughan) was the San Diego Historical Society, which was founded in 1850, a time when the population of Old Town included not a single slow-growth advocate. The society’s founding, in fact, preceded the organization of both the San Diego police and fire departments by 39 years. Both departments also sent representatives to the gala.

In 1850, the most venerable institution memorialized by the historical society was Mission San Diego de Alcala. Founded in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra, the mission was the cornerstone of what has become the country’s sixth largest city. The mission parish remains an active force today and was represented at the gala by Msgr. I. Brent Eagen.

Among other honorees whose centennials already have passed were Coronado and National City; the law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps; the San Diego Yacht Club and the San Diego Rowing Club; the Sweetwater Authority; the San Diego Center for Children and Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church.

The hospital used the brewery’s weathered bricks as a stage setting for a series of historical vignettes that attempted to recapture the flavor of early days in San Diego County.

At the entrance, a scene titled “The Territories” emphasized the frontier towns of San Pasqual, Ramona and Lakeside that flourished after the 1869 discovery of gold in Julian. A country-Western band called Greasewood completed the effect.

In the brewery plaza, the Mercy Marimba Band and the Solera Flamenco Dance Company helped guests to digest the guacamole dip while they examined a scene called “The Early Californios.” The scene dealt with the remote past; from the founding of the mission until Alonzo Horton built his New Town in 1867.

Hazlett’s Dixie Hasslers provided slightly more contemporary entertainment in a tribute to the beaches, the ocean and the famed “tent city” erected for decades as a summer encampment just to the north of Hotel del Coronado.

Invitations urged guests to dress in the style of a favorite period. By evening’s end, a good many Victorian ladies and gentlemen (these get-ups are the most easily found at local costume shops) had managed to anoint their rented duds with splatters of oil from the tempura-fried vegetable station.

There were also many vaqueros and a few fetching senoritas, but, surprisingly enough, there wasn’t a single surfer dude in the pack.

One of the most vigorously Victorian was Richard Keyser, Mercy’s president and chief executive officer.

“The neatest thing about turning 100 is that you made it,” he said. “You have to be doing something good for the community to last a century.”

Keyser added that he expects the institution to continue in the traditions established by Mother Mary Michael and Sister Mary Alphonsus, the Sisters of Mercy who in 1890 opened St. Joseph’s Dispensary, forerunner of Mercy Hospital, at the corner of 6th Avenue and Market Street.

“I think the values Mercy was founded on will last us at least another century,” he said. “Changes in society will continue at an accelerated pace, and I think the value system that is the foundation of the hospital will smooth that change, because we believe deeply in the dignity of the human person.”

Sister Mary Jo Anderson, the hospital’s vice president for community relations and long-term care, said Mercy’s ongoing salute to the past is accompanied by an eye to the future.

“The centennial marks a brand new beginning for us,” she said. “We’re really looking forward to the next 100 years. Being tied into your ‘rooted-ness’ is fine, but you can’t live in the past. ‘Caring for your future’ is the motto for our centennial, after all.”

The hospital’s attention to the future will not preclude further parties, according to Mercy Foundation Executive Paulette Gibson, who said the Centennial Mercy Ball will be held Oct. 27 at Hotel del Coronado. According to a committee member who attended Saturday’s gala, “50 yuppies” have been dispatched through the county to seek out donations for the auction to be held at the ball.

The gala proceeded through the evening with a minimum of speechifying and rather more entertainment than is the rule at such gatherings. In addition to strolling magicians and singers, the old brewing room was set up as a sort of brick temple of Big Bandism by the Benny Hollman Orchestra, which mounted a cabaret that kept the room packed.

The guest list included Tom and Donna Sefton, Charles Hellerich, Bill Sauls, Dick and Vangie Burt, the Bruce Moores, the Mark Brandons, the Frank Alessios, Jim and Ruth Mulvaney, Bill and Kay Rippee, Yolanda Walther-Meade, Ken and Anne Brown, Dolly Ragan, Terry and Alice Churchill, Ed Navarro, the Harold Sisks, the Frank Radfords, Lawrence and Christine Garcia, and Sister Patricia Ryan of Burlingame, president of the Sisters of Mercy.