Burrell Memorial Hospital was chartered in March 1915 in Roanoke, Virginia, and began as a 10-bed facility equipped with a thousand dollars of borrowed money. Initially, the hospital was a 6-room cottage owned by 5 black physicians who gave the hospital association its use rent free. The hospital is an eleemosynary institution controlled by a trustee board of 15 members which includes laymen, women and two white citizens. In the 1930s the active hospital staff consisted of 7 black physicians and surgeons, most of whom served as interns in nationally known hospitals. The consulting staff consists of leading white medical specialists in the Roanoke community. Burrell Hospital had a nurses training school component, added in 1929 and accredited by the Virginia State Board, the American Medical Association, and the American Red Cross, receiving applications from across the nation. In the 1930s, the hospital expanded to a 150-bed facility valued at $600,000. Because of financial stresses and a low census, the hospital closed its doors in the early 1970s.