Among those who spoke briefly was Mrs. Homer G. Phillips, widow of a Black lawyer who had campaigned tirelessly in 1923 to win the original bond issue. Phillips had been shot to death in 1931 while waiting for a streetcar on Delmar Boulevard. Two teens, including the son of a disgruntled client, were acquitted of his murder. The Board of Aldermen voted to name the new hospital in his memory. Aided by federal Depression-fighting money, the $3.1 million hospital opened in 1937. The city closed old No. 2, at 2945 Lawton Avenue, and moved patients and the nursing school to "Homer G." The new, seven-story hospital was a towering symbol of pride for Blacks in St. Louis.