Results tagged “Memorial Hospital” from York Town Square

This part of the York City map of 1888, from the booklet "Northwest York" gives a view of what became known as The Avenues. North Hartley Street, the address of the earliest forerunner of Memorial Hospital, can be seen at bottom, left. Background posts: Industrialist Thomas Shipley's 'enduring monument' in York did not 'endure' and Glatfelter, Morgan Smith head industrial legacy list and Spring Garden Band: 'It's like being in the room with history' .

Memorial Hospital's plans to move from the east side of York to the former Hawk Lake golf course on the north side are well known.

And many people alive today remember when Memorial moved from the west side to its current location along Interstate 83.

But before the West Side Osteopathic Hospital and Dr. Edmund Meisenhelder's West Side Sanitarium operated, where was the hospital located? ...

York Little Theatre moved to the former Elmwood Theater, its current location, in 1953. This photo was taken after renovations to the Belmont Street building in the 1960s. YLT celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2008. Background posts: Bomb group seeks Cameron Mitchell's WWII info and Add another to list of entertainers with York links and Former Hobbit House resident: 'We loved that house and the Elmwood neighborhood'.

It's a quirky little area, Spring Garden Township's Belmont Street.

It's sandwiched in there between and around the Elmwood Mansion and two Interstate 83 interchanges.

Melvin's, a hamburger stand and popular hangout, was nearby, before the interstate knocked that down.

Indeed, the interstate helped redefine the neighborhood.

In recent years, it's become lost, as retail, entertainment and residential options have moved farther out.

A York Daily Record/Sunday News editorial (1/09/09) used Belmont Street as an example of what happens to an area that sprawl leaves behind:

Mary E. White became the first black nurse at Memorial Hospital in the mid-1950s. Background posts: York County WWII nurse: 'You know, it was the biggest war ever, and they needed nurses', York's Wonder Women: The stories of four more movers and shakers, Histories attempt to fill blanks in women's, black history and Pioneering York doctor slighted: 'She felt ... her professional status was well established'.

Nurse Mary E. White's story is similar to many professionally trained blacks in York County in the 20th century.

She trained for a profession but experienced problems gaining employment in her field.

Her fourth application for employment at Memorial Hospital worked, as the following excerpt from my York County black history, "Almost Forgotten," states:

Rachel Witmyer, member of a committees that founded the forerunner to Memorial Hospital is seen in this 2005 photo with Ruth Kammer, left, and Memorial CEO Sally Dixon. Witmyer died this week at the age of 97. Background posts: York's Memorial Hospital eyes site at different compass point, Well-known doctor, York, Pa.'s Edmund Meisenhelder, beat back flu and East side Memorial Hospital formerly on west side.

Dr. Rachel Witmyer was part of the team responsible for opening West Side Osteopathic Hospital in 1945.

That hospital was a successor to Edmund Meisenhelder's West Side Sanitarium and a forerunner of Memorial Hospital.

She had opened her own practice seven years before. And other female doctors had preceded her in York County.

Dr. Martha Bailey of Dillsburg was one.

Ruth Kammer's "Inside West Side" names at least two other early 20th-century female osteopaths: Emma E. Donnelly and Rachel E. Walker.

Florence La Rose Ames' "That Sovereign Knowledge," a history of York Hospital, lists Elizabeth G. B. Cannon as an intern in 1939.

So, at least a handful of women had been practicing medicine around the county for years.

But not enough to prevent an incident that dismayed Witmyer one day soon after West Side opened... .

An underground passage connected buildings at the old West Side Sanitarium, an antecedent of Memorial Hospital. Food and patients were shuttled through this passageway. Ruth Kammer wrote in "Inside West Side" that the tunnel occasionally served as home to an "unfriendly, nocturnal inhabitant which caused some consternation to employees and patients." Background post: East side Memorial Hospital formerly on west side.

In his day, many people knew Dr. Edmund K. Meisenhelder, owner of West Side Sanitarium.

In fact, many still remember the surgeon who operated the private hospital, forerunner to Memorial Hospital, from 1913 until he retired and sold it in 1945. It then became West Side Osteopathic Hospital... .

Richard Kraus said he misses the sounds and smells of his old home, especially the creosote odor from the fireplace. He was surprised to learn it's still there.

First comes a longtime resident of the Elmwood Mansion telling credible stories about ghosts in that wonderful York landmark.

As discussed in previous posts, Ann Niess wrote an intriguing book about growing up in the mansion. (Excerpt: My whole family, and later on Edward Strickler and his family, all witnessed a shadowy figure of a hoop-skirted woman ... . I am very aware that you as the reader will have your own interpretation of what I relate. However, I experienced it and can only describe what I thought I saw and how I felt.")

Now, York Daily Record writer Frank Bodani explores the Elmwood Mansion with a more recent resident, Richard Kraus. And he also told stories of apparitions.

All this attention has caused Ann Niess's book to sell out at its two local vendors: the Memorial Hospital Gift Shop and the York County Heritage Trust Museum shop.

But extra copies are being printed.

Ghosts aside - and they should be far aside - Niess believes the house gives meaningful lessons about America, as she wrote in a recent letter to the editor:

The very endurance of the house exhibited by all of the past interfacing events it had been subjected to, it can be compared to the "American dream" theory that substantiates our very American culture. Despite the ravages of time, wind and weather, the very bricks and mortar it was made from, it still "stands tall", and on its own. This trait is displayed by its long perseverance over adversity and circumstance, and to have evolved to its present status by becoming a useful structure for public service. We as Americans inherited this same legacy. We stand tall with our belief that in our very solid goodness of will and determination, we will overcome what ever will threaten our Americanism. We will persevere over adversity, and retain our identity. The very existence of the Elmwood Mansion exemplifies this Americanism theme.

Meanwhile, enjoy Frank's article on the mansion: ...

Former York County journalist Gary Dutery wrote that he was "blown away" after reading Ann Niess' book on York's Elmwood Mansion.

The author lived there for years, and her intimate knowledge of the iconic York house, now Memorial Hospital's conference center, clearly impressed Dutery.

In his assessment of the book, Dutery gives insight into the author and her work (and notice the neat story about how the house determined the route of Interstate 83):