Denton's Haunted History: The Ghost of Flow Hospital
- communications5244
- Aug 13
- 3 min read
The legend of Nurse Betty originates from a place that is now a ghost itself - Flow Memorial Hospital which once stood on Scripture Hill, now home to the City Parc Apartments. The hospital opened in September 1950 on land donated by the Flow family, who intended it to be used as a facility to serve citizens who could not afford health care. Flow served as the only public hospital in the county and underwent renovation and expansions in 1960 and 1968 before closing as the city/county hospital in 1988. It operated for a few more years as the Flow Rehabilitation Hospital before being demolished in 2002.
So, the story of Betty goes like this, a nurse and a married doctor at the hospital had an affair that resulted in pregnancy. The doctor performed an after-hours abortion, without any assistance. After the procedure as they rode the elevator down from the third floor, Betty began to experience internal bleeding. The doctor was unable to help her, and she tragically passed away in the elevator.
Throughout the years, reports of strange occurrences were commonplace in the hospital. Patients would often talk about a nurse who would bring them blankets and sit with them during the night, much to the confusion of the morning shift. This nurse was often described as wearing “whites” resembling nurses from the 1950s and 1960s. Staff members would frequently complain that electronic or other equipment would malfunction, but when a repair man was called, nothing was found to be wrong. One staff member even reported that the analog phone in the old lab on the 3rd floor would ring every night, even though it wasn’t plugged into anything. Curiously, when they answered it, there was only dead air on the other end. Supply orders would sometimes be delivered without any order being placed, leading to jokes that Nurse Betty was doing inventory again.
Mary Bradshaw worked at Flow Hospital in the 1960’s, and wrote about one of her experiences:
“One of my duties, when I worked the 11:00 pm to 7:00 am shift, was to prepare for morning surgeries. Sometimes this meant a visit back to the operating room for supplies. Often, I felt an uneasy feeling on these errands and frequently heard doors closing when I knew no one else was there. That night the door to the stairs clanged shut as I passed by. I stopped, turned and checked the stairway, no one was there. Then there seemed to be someone in the nurses’ lounge but on inspection the room was empty.
The feeling that I was not alone caused me to hastily pick up my supplies and return to the third-floor nurse’s station. I remarked to the other nurse on duty, “It is really spooky back in surgery at night”. Her answer was, “Yes, I won’t go back there alone anymore.”
Even after it closed as a general hospital, people continued to have strange encounters in the building. According to an interview with Detective David Stewart published in the September 6, 1999, issue of the Denton Record-Chronicle, one night he was walking through the halls around midnight when he saw a blue figure vanish as soon as he laid eyes on it. Stewart described the figure as having a human shape standing about the height of an adult and emitting a blue sparkling aura.
Now that Flow Hospital is gone, one wonders what happened to the ghostly figure of Nurse Betty. There have been reports that she continues to haunt the area around City Parc Apartments, helping people involved in accidents. Or did she transfer to a new hospital. One staff member reported that as they loaded up the last of the things from the old building they said to Nurse Betty, “This is the last truck to Denton Regional, you better get in.”
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