Here's a description of who I presume the author is from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

In 1926 while on vacation, physician Dr. Blake McKenzie Lancaster became addicted to Florida's sunny climate. He returned to Wahpeton, N.D., sold his practice, packed up his family and settled in the town of Manatee.

Lancaster and his wife, Inger, a former school principal whose life he saved during an influenza epidemic, their children, Blake, Nelson and Dorothy, and Inger's parents purchased two adjacent homes in Manatee near Braden Castle.

Lancaster decided to build a hospital within Braden Castle Park; however, his plans changed and he built his 10-room hospital a few blocks west of the park on the corner of 24th Street and Second Avenue East.

Next to the hospital the doctor constructed a large home. Later, 15 more rooms were added to the hospital as well as an infant nursery with four bassinets.

The hospital was a one-story building constructed in the Spanish style with a tile roof and large open courtyard. The operating room opened directly into its lobby so that following surgery patients were moved through the lobby to their hospital room.

Lancaster was a skilled surgeon and the people of the town of Manatee quickly began to rely on him. He set up his offices in the Arcade Building near present day Ninth Street and Manatee Avenue East.

Unfortunately, Lancaster's arrival coincided with the beginning of economic depression in Florida. When a bank panic, railroad failure and deadly hurricane combined in 1926 to end a decade long real estate boom, Florida suffered an economic crisis.

Many of his patients could not pay for Lancaster's services with cash. He often accepted chickens, vegetables, fruit or other services in lieu of his fee. Perhaps this is why a 1939 inventory of the hospital includes a listing for $250 worth of poultry.

Lancaster became the company physician for the Manatee Crate Mill, which was the largest industry in the county and helped sustain many families during the depression. By caring for the employees and their families on a per capita basis, Lancaster helped to establish the first pre-paid health care program in the county.

Not only was Lancaster known in the community for his medical skills, but also for his love of art, music and entertaining. Lancaster played the cello and organ, his wife, Inger, the harp and their children were trained in piano, violin, organ and accordion.

Their home contained a large theater-type pipe organ. The family held many parties and barbecues at their home in Manatee. Each event usually included musical entertainment.

Lancaster was an accomplished artist as well. His oil paintings still hang in the Manatee Masonic Hall, of which he was the Worshipful Master of Free & Accepted Masons No. 31 in 1930.

Despite the frivolity, Inger found the life to be a hard one. She was the chief nurse of the hospital, supervised the entire staff, helped to keep the hospital clean, and prepared family meals and entertainment. In the summer of 1934, Inger filed for divorce in Sarasota County and took the children to Washington, D.C., for a new life.

In 1939, Lancaster and his second wife, Francis, deeded the hospital and its contents to the trustees of the Riverside Hospital. At that time, the hospital and its furnishings were valued at $17,856. In addition to 200 sheets and 100 nightshirts, the hospital inventory included three X-ray machines and an electrocardiograph.

In 1945, Lancaster's son, Nelson, a pilot and lieutenant in the Navy, died when his plane crashed into the Pacific. After his son's death, Lancaster's health began to decline. After a few years he gave up his practice and sold the hospital.

Lancaster died in 1956. At his death, his estate was valued at only $3,534.50, but the people of the community continued to benefit from his presence as donations, in lieu of flowers, were sent to the Happiness House for Children.

Riverside Hospital was torn down in the 1970s, but the house that Lancaster built is still standing.

Department of Historical Resources.