St Joseph's Hospital

St. Joseph's Hospital was founded by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, who ran the Tourtellote Hospital. It was opened on July 1, 1898 and was initially housed in the John A.Willard home on Sixth Street. This hospital was used in addition to the Tourtellotte Hospital and could house 22 patients, but it was quickly filled. During the fall of 1898, building was begun on a new hospital building at the corner of Fifth and Washington Streets. This building was completed in 1899 at a cost of $35,000.

Frederick Kron donated a statue of St. Joseph to the hospital. It was purchased in Paris and weighed 3,500 pounds. It wass 9 feet 6 inches tall and made out of cast iron. It was raised to the ceiling to putting it on top of the elevator and then using ropes and pulleys pulled by four horses.

In 1913, a two story addition was built, adding more patient rooms, a new chapel, a large operating room, two dressing rooms, two recovery rooms, and an anesthetic room. The Willard House was then used as a home for the aged, and later as a home for the Sisters.

The number of patients at the hospital rose steadily from 720 in 1916 to 923 in 1922.

In 1926, the Sisters proposed an extensive addition to the hospital. The people of Blue Earth county met this proposal with enthusiasm and donated enough money to start the $200,000 addition. The addition was completed in the summer of 1927 and dedicated on September 8. The hospital now had 120 patient beds. The old part of the hospital was remodeled, making room for operating rooms, staff dressing rooms, and laboratories.

By this time the staff consisted of 34 Sisters, lay nurses, an engineer, orderlies, office girls, a record librarian, one lab and one X-ray technician, and 34 doctors. The hospital was now servicing 1,250 patients a year.

More remodeling was necessary in 1944. New equipment was added to the surgical and obstetrical departments. A new elevator and new diet kitchens were added in 1948. The hospital now had its own laundry, bakery, and kitchen (in which all meals were cooked). Its capacity had grown to 142 beds.

By 1950, there was again a need to expand, and ground was broken for a new St. joseph's Hospital on Garden Voulebard. The new hospital plans called for a two million dollar building on five acres of land. The old St. Joseph's hospital became Mother Frances Rest Home, and was closed in 1967, with the building eventually being demolished.

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