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History 1900 - 1920 |
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Prior to 1900, hospital accommodations and endowment were ample, people being slow to avail themselves of its advantages. The real growth of the hospital began at this time when the Wright Memorial Annex was added at a cost of $7,000. This expansion was made possible by a gift from Henrietta and Margaret Wright, in memory of their brother who had died in 1896. It had two large wards on two floors (A and B Wards) which accommodated 24 patients. This increased the capacity of the hospital to 36 beds.
Construction of the Henry Shepherd Memorial Surgery started in 1901 and was opened in January 1904. The entire unit, housed in a specially constructed brick building in front of the Wright Annex, was the gift of the late Thomas M. Shepherd of Northampton in memory of his father.
An early edition of the Daily Hampshire Gazette carried a lengthy story of the new Surgery saying . . . "Devoted expressly to surgical operations, the building will enlarge to a great degree the scope of the beneficent and humanitarian work of the Dickinson Hospital. It will be one of the most perfectly equipped ... in the country, comprising many desirable features of the celebrated hospitals in the country, together with some of the latest approved methods of conducting a surgical hospital."
A major innovation was the principal window- 19 feet high, nine wide-which extended up the height of the wall to a point several inches above the eaves for the purpose of affording a great amount of light in the operating room. "For incorporating this feature, Mr. Shepherd was warmly commended by specialists who experienced in their own hospitals the great importance of having better light in performing operations in critical cases."
By 1907 it was felt that the original hospital building had outlived its usefulness as a patient area. The building was moved to its present location, renovated and became the nurses' home. A three-story brick building was built on the site of the old building, consisting of two floors for patients and the first floor for special services and offices. This building brought the number of beds in the hospital up to 75.
The City of Northampton erected the Isolation Hospital on hospital property in 1909. This contagious building was managed by the hospital under the direction of the City's Board of Health until 1938, when it was deemed unnecessary. The building stood idle for a number of years and then was taken over by the American Red Cross as headquarters for the Western Massachusetts Regional Blood Center. The Blood Center moved to Springfield in 1959. The building is now used for storage of Civil Defense emergency medical supplies.
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