Health Clinic*

The Health Clinic at E-5 was staffed by the doctor who lived next door and one or two nurses who worked out of this house. Many homesteader babies were born here from 1935 into the 1940s. Eleanor Roosevelt believed that one of the most important issues to address in the new community was health care. The Arthurdale Health Association formed in 1937 and each family paid $2 a month for basic care. It housed a three-bed, one crib clinic from 1936 to 1938.

Eleanor Roosevelt believed that one of the most important issues to address in the new community was health care. The Arthurdale Health association formed in 1937 and charged $1 a month for services for an individual or $2 a month for a family. This building housed a three-bed clinic from 1936 to 1938.

On January 19, 1937, she wrote about a visit to the clinic in her column "My Day."

Her visit started with breakfast at the Arthurdale tea room, which led her to praise West Virginia ham: "West Virginia ham seems to me to be particularly good, and I think it should have some of the renown of its cousin, the Virginia ham."

She went on to visit the newly opened Arthurdale health center, where she observed: "The little operating room is well equipped and the doctor's office and waiting room, kitchen and store room where medical supplies are kept, looked in spic and span order and ready to care for all clinic cases. Two girls from the National Youth Administration were folding gauze and taking a course in practical nursing under the doctor and nurse."

She then visited the Arthurdale schools and remarked of the lunches being served to students: "The lunch being served to nursery school children seemed to me very sensible—creamed eggs, buttered beets, mashed potatoes and milk. The older children were having a stew which attracted us by its savory odor as soon as we came into the building, with bread and butter and milk in addition. These lunches seem to me a very important part of the school life for the mothers cook and serve them as volunteers and it means a great deal to the health of the children."

Always interested in the well-being of Arthurdale residents, she attended three community meetings before returning to Washington: "We have had a school committee meeting, and a medical committee meeting and in a short time will attend the Arthurdale homesteaders meeting and get off in the late afternoon for Washington."

Arthurdale Heritage, Preserving Arthurdale, WV – Eleanor Roosevelt's New Deal Community. Arthurdale Heritage Inc.. Accessed March 20, 2017. http://www.arthurdaleheritage.org/.

Haid, Stephen Edward. "Arthurdale: An Experiment in Community Planning, 1933-1947." Master's thesis, West Virginia University, 1975.

Maloney, C. J. Back to the Land: Arthurdale, FDRs New Deal, and the Costs of Economic Planning. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

Patterson, Stuart. “A New Pattern of Life: The Public Past and Present of Two New Deal Communities.” Doctoral Thesis, Emory University, 2006.

Penix, Amanda Griffith. Images of America: Arthurdale. Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

Roosevelt, Eleanor. "January 19, 1937." My Day 1937. https://erpapers.columbian.gwu.edu/

Ward, Bryan. A New Deal for America. Arthurdale Heritage Inc., 1995