Santa Cruz Church
This was the 2nd Catholic Church in Hagåtña before the war. It was built on land donated to the church by the original owner, Antonia Cruz Untalan.
As you can see, the church was much too damaged during the American bombardment of 1944. Besides that, Hagåtña lost almost all of its prior residents and there was no need for a second church anymore.
Catholic Medical Center
In time, the Catholic Church, still owners of that land, decided to build a clinic - the first church-owned clinic on Guam. It was opened in July of 1955.
The clinic closed sometime at the end of the 60s or early 70s and sat abandoned for some years. Later, a commercial building was built on the same site and now houses a law firm.
The Catholic Medical Center was where our parents took my sisters and I to when we were ill or needed a dentist. CMC started to lose business in the late 60s into the early 70s when doctors/specialists started opening their private clinics in the Tamuning/Tumon area, closer to Guam Memorial Hospital in location. By 1973, almost all the doctors and dentists were already operating out of the private clinics. CMC closed down while focus was on the new hospital called the Medical Center of the Marianas, also owned by the Catholic Church of Guam, while the old Guam Memorial Hospital was suffering from disrepair and lack of funding. Eventually, the old Guam Memorial Hospital closed down and doctors went into exodus toward MCM. Medical Center of the Marianas sold out to Guam Memorial Hospital, hence the name was changed to Guam Memorial Hospital and the old GMH was eventually occupied by the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Agency. In the late-80s, the old MGH was deemed unsafe and vacated, then demolished in the mid-90s.
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