Medical History of Huntington Trail

Entries on This Tour

1. Madison Park Healthcare (Foster Memorial Home)

Foster Memorial Home for Aged Women was built in 1924 to serve as a home for elderly widows and single women. It served this purpose until the Foster Foundation opened Woodlands Retirement Community on August 19, 1996, to serve the needs of all of the elderly in the community. Today, the building operates as Madison Park Healthcare, a private 24-hour care facility for the elderly.

2. Kessler Hospital

Kessler Hospital provided medical care to Huntington, West Virginia residents from 1904 to 1958. Founded by Dr. A.K. Kessler, who had originally operated a hospital in Clarksburg, Kessler Hospital and Sanitarium was initially located on the corner of 4th Avenue and 5th Street. The hospital reopened in a larger building at 6th Avenue and 1st Street in 1911, and became Kessler-Hatfield Hospital in 1917 when former governor Henry D. Hatfield entered a partnership with Kessler. In 1928, the hospital was renamed for the last time, becoming Huntington Memorial Hospital until it closed in 1958. The former hospital was demolished shortly thereafter and a shopping center was built in its place.

3. Guthrie Hospital (1911-1988)

Located at the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Sixth Street, Guthrie Hospital served patients in the Huntington area for over seventy years. Originally called Guthrie-Steenbergen Hospital, it was established in February 1911 by Dr. Joseph A. Guthrie and Dr. John Steenbergen. After Steenbergen sold his interest in 1912, Guthrie operated the hospital alone, expanding it in 1916 and 1920 and creating a training school for nurses around the same time. After Guthrie passed away in 1955, his son William ran the hospital alongside Dr. Gary Ripley. The two, joined later by William’s son Robert, operated Guthrie Hospital until the mid-1980s. While the hospital was considered well-equipped and modern when it first opened, the building was aging and operating at half its former capacity by that time. The Cabell Huntington Hospital Foundation purchased Guthrie Hospital in 1986, but it closed just two years later for financial reasons. The former hospital was demolished and replaced in 2000 by the Cabell-Huntington Unity Apartments, a public housing complex for individuals with disabilities.

4. Touma Medical Museum

The Touma Medical Museum, once the private collection of Dr. Joseph Touma, was gifted to the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University. The Museum features a large collection of historic medical books, tools and devices from the early days of medical practice. The 4,000 square-foot museum also includes a 1926 Model-T Ford and a buggy used by a physician in the early 1900s. The museum is best known for its historic pharmacy exhibit, collection of ear trumpets, and devices such as a foot-driven dental drill. The museum is located on the third floor of the historic Wright and Walker building, now called the Century Building, which was built in 1915 and was home to the Wright and Walker Clothier Company.

5. Huntington Cabell County Chapter of the Red Cross

The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that assists the needs of people throughout the United States, and was founded on May 21, 1881 in Washington, D.C., by Clara Barton. The Buford Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution established the Huntington Cabell County Chapter of the American Red Cross in 1917. The Huntington Red Cross Canteen began operation on September 9, 1918 in a building at the C & O Railway Station to assist with war efforts. During the year the Canteen was open, it served hundreds of soldiers each day and was one of the best-known and most highly praised Canteen’s in the nation. With the chapter’s continuous growth it soon became apparent that a new and larger building was needed, and on April 21, 1978, the new Red Cross Center at 1111 Veterans Memorial Boulevard was dedicated and opened.

6. American Red Cross Canteen

The Huntington American Red Cross Canteen provided soldiers with supplies, food, and medical support during World War I. Huntington, West Virginia, was named the Red Cross Headquarters for the state of West Virginia in 1917. In August 1918, the Huntington Red Cross Canteen was established at the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad station. Huntington was one of the last West Virginian cities with railroad industry to have a canteen. The purpose of the canteen was to provide traveling troops with supplies and food during World War I. The Huntington Red Cross Canteen received monetary and volunteer support from the Huntington community.

7. Barnett Hospital and Nursing School

From 1912 to 1939, the Barnett Hospital and Nursing School served the African American community of Huntington, West Virginia. Dr. Clinton Constantine “C.C.” Barnett completed his early education in the Huntington area before receiving his medical degree from Howard University. Dr. Barnett then returned to Huntington to practice medicine, where in 1912 he achieved his dream of founding a hospital owned and operated entirely by African Americans. In 1918, the hospital expanded to include a nursing school run by Dr. Barnett’s wife Clara. At the time, although several medical schools accepted African American students, many hospitals refused to train Black interns, and there were even fewer integrated nursing schools. In 1930, Dr. Barnett leased his hospital to the City of Huntington, who renamed the facility the City Hospital. After serving both Black and white patients during the Great Depression, the City Hospital closed in 1939 and the building was sold to the General Laborers Union Local 543, who occupied it until 2007. In 2008, the former hospital was purchased and subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places. Although plans were announced to remodel the building into apartments, the status of this project is currently unclear.

8. River Park Hospital (Huntington Orthopedic Hospital)

Located at 1230 6th Avenue, River Park Hospital is one of two inpatient psychiatric facilities in Huntington. The hospital’s origins can be traced to 1923, when Dr. Arthur Shade Jones founded the Huntington Children’s Hospital in a former residence. In 1929, the facility was relocated and renamed the Huntington Orthopedic Hospital. It moved to River Park Hospital’s current location, a mansion that was originally built in 1918, in 1948. Huntington Orthopedic provided treatment for patients with polio for decades before the development of a vaccine led it to be renamed the Huntington Hospital and repurposed as a medical-surgical facility. In 1988, the hospital became a psychiatric facility and was renamed River Park. Today, the hospital provides inpatient and psychiatric residential mental health treatments for patients of all ages.

9. C&O Hospital, 1900-1917

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad operated a hospital in this location between 1900 and 1971. The hospital served employees of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and their families, offering free or low-cost healthcare services. Prior to 1960, C&O workers and their families could travel to the hospital at no charge, making the C&O Hospital a regional healthcare provider for railroad employees and their families.

10. Cabell Huntington Hospital

Opened in 1956, Cabell Huntington Hospital was built as a 236 bed facility to serve the growing population of the tri-state area. It is now of the largest hospitals in West Virginia with 303 beds. CHH also is affiliated with the Marshall University School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy. CHH is a level II trauma center. On the CHH campus is the hospital itself, the Hoops Family Children's Hospital, the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center, Marshall University School of Medicine, and Marshall Health. CHH also has a number of physician offices and clinics in Huntington and the surrounding tri-state area.

11. Huntington State Hospital (Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital)

The Huntington State Hospital, now the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital, was constructed in 1890 along Norway Avenue in Huntington, West Virginia. The 30-acre site was donated to the state of West Virginia by the Huntington Chamber of Commerce. The facility was established as an insane asylum by an act of the state legislature in 1897 and called the Home for Incurables. For many years, the hospital faced problems of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. In 1952, a horrific fire started in Building 4, killing fourteen female patients. In the latter half of the twentieth century, as attitudes towards the treatment of mental illness evolved, the hospital was reorganized. In 1999, it was renamed Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital. Renovations were completed in 2015, expanding the facility from a 90-bed to a 110-bed hospital.

12. Paul Ambrose Trail for Health

The Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH), an expanding pedestrian and bicycle trail through the City of Huntington and its surrounding neighborhoods, provides wide-spread recreational spaces for people of all ages to enjoy.

13. St. Mary's Hospital

In 1924, the Pallottine Missionary Sisters were instructed to open a hospital in Huntington, West Virginia, and St. Mary's Hospital was opened in that same year. The St. Mary's School of Nursing opened in 1926 when the need for nurses for St. Mary's Hospital grew. The students studied and lived within the hospital walls, but by 1945, attendance had grown so much, the need for a bigger space arose. Thus, on October 4, 1947, the St. Mary's School of Nursing opened the doors to its new building, which included both classrooms and living spaces. The School of Nursing stayed in commission until 2009, when the St. Mary's Center for Education was opened at 2825 Fifth Avenue - just blocks away. In 2013, the old building for the School of Nursing was demolished, and extra parking was put in its place.

This Tour is a Thematic Tour or Heritage Trail.

Medical History of Huntington Trail

Created by David J. Trowbridge on March 27th 2020, 6:30:27 pm.

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Description

This trail includes current and historic hospitals, medical schools, museums, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross. Among the highlights of the tour is the Touma Medical Museum. Although the museum is open by appointment only, the Clio entry offers a virtual tour that offers a 360-degree view of the museum along with a recorded conversation with Dr. Touma by Marshall students.

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Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine

Entries on This Tour

Medical History of Huntington Trail

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