A Few Old Hospitals

McMillan Hospital

McMillan Hospital stood on the corner of Lee and Morris Street.  I passed it each day while walking to Thomas Jefferson Jr High,  which stood next door.  As the hospital was being torn down, I discovered hundreds of old autopsies scattered about the hallway.  I gathered them up and took them home to read.  I soon discovered that many of Charleston, and the surrounding area's most notorious murders were within these reports.  Painstaking details of each victims death were displayed.   On a lighter note,  look at the photo below.  Remember her?  I only place it here because McMillan Hospital is in the background of the photo on the right.

 

In 1907, Dr. William A. McMillan developed his hospital in a frame house at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Morris Street. McMillan Hospital was soon moved two blocks south into a modern structure. In 1971, McMillan became a part of Charleston General Hospital, and its buildings were demolished in 1976. Drs. Romie and W. F. Walker purchased a stately home on Virginia Street. In 1921, it became the Mountain State Hospital, which was merged into Charleston Memorial Hospital in 1969.

St Francis Hospital

In Dec of 1918, a little band of Franciscan Sisters came to Charleston to establish a hospital.  They took over what was then known as the Laidley Homestead and converted it into a hospital.  That is the photo you see above. But soon the home was outgrown and the hospital you see below was built.

Saint Francis Hospital opened in a remodeled house on Laidley Street a century ago. The Catholic hospital, then with about 30 beds, is now a 155-bed hospital. But the hospital's culture and mission have stayed the same since the sisters of St. Francis from New York started the hospital in 1913.  This shows the old Saint Francis Hospital before they tore it down.  I was born here,  and was also a patient for a short time as a kid. I was placed on the floor where my mom was a nurse, because I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Mountain State Hospital

 

Mountain State came about when a group of local physicians, pharmacist George Kenney and state attorney general E.T. England purchased a residence on Virginia Street and founded the Mountain State Hospital in 1921.  The hospital featured 120 beds, two operating rooms, a delivery room and nursing school. Mountain State merged with Charleston Memorial Hospital in 1969  and closed in 1971. It was used afterwards as a nursing home before closing in 1999. In 2005, the complex was purchased by Eye and Ear Clinic and demolished for a parking lot.

 

Charleston General Hospital

See more history on Charleston General HERE

This is what Charleston General looked like when I lived 3 doors down from it on Elmwood Ave.  The darker section was the original hospital after they moved from up on the hill.  Later they added the light section.  By the time I was 15,  they were building the "Marmet" section behind this photo over on Washington Street.  This street has disappeared as the hospital enveloped the entire block and today it's hard to see where the old hospital once was

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The Staats Hospital The Staats Hospital started out as the Glendale Lodge of the Knights Of Pythias, and also included a movie theater and retail establishments before being converted into a hospital.  Staats took over the entire building in 1935. The hospital closed in the early 1980s This article appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail  in 1922 when the Knights opened the building. _________________________ Dr Staats Obit

Kanawha Valley Memorial Hospital
 

One of the rarest photos you'll ever see, and possibly the ONLY real photo of the old Kanawha Valley Memorial Hospital at 1014 Virginia St. E. - The Barber Sanatorium in Charleston, the forerunner of Kanawha Valley Hospital, was built in 1904 by Dr. Timothy L. Barber. In 1925, a new corporation, Kanawha Valley Hospital, bought the facility. In 1957, the hospital’s income began to decline. Two years later, the stockholders and directors sold out to Kanawha Valley Memorial Hospital, a nonprofit corporation. Kanawha Valley Memorial Hospital operated at its original Virginia Street site until 1982, when it moved to a new 170-bed facility on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the Elk River. The hospital merged with Charleston Area Medical Center in 1986. After renovations, it reopened in June 1988 as CAMC’s Women and Children’s Hospital.

Charleston Memorial Hospital

Charleston Memorial Hospital was built, and dedicated in 1951 with 129 beds. By 1974, the original plan of 440 beds and 58 bassinets had been completed on the site of a former golf course in the Kanawha City neighborhood of Charleston.

Also In Kanawha City

Which later became.....

Highland Hospital, which continues today.

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