Challenge Of The Past
A Brief Background of Hospitals In Clay Center
Printed in the Clay Center Dispatch on February 14, 2006
By Marcia Newell
“Building for a Healthy Future” is the theme chosen by the Clay County Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees for the upcoming expansion project. In order to appreciate the current medical facility and the range of services offered it might be helpful to review the accomplishments of the past.
In 1903, the Porter-Morgan Hospital was begun in a house at the corner of Third and Blunt Street. In 1914, a second hospital began. Located at 1508 Sixth Street, it was known as the House of Seven Gables. Both of these facilities were privately owned and operated by physicians.
The first publicly owned hospital in Clay Center was built in 1925. The building was erected at 2121 Seventh Street for $48,184.60. Ownership of the building was transferred to the county in 1954 and presently houses the Clay County Museum. A home for nurses, located just west of the new hospital on Liberty Street, was also built in 1925. That building presently serves as the residence for the hospital administrator. In its early years, the hospital had a nursing school, but the exact dates of operation are not known.
The community has a history of supporting efforts towards providing quality medical care in the area. The following sentences are taken from a publication called, 90 years of Health Care, Clay County Kansas 1902-1993. “In 1924, J.H. Kerby, Emil Hartman and W.G. Robinson collected $40,000 towards equipping a new hospital. The city made a levy for the building. Margaret K. Morgan and Mrs. Wm. Kehoe gave the lots on the northeast corner of the block in which the hospital was built. Eric Swenson gave the money to buy the site for the Nurses Home. The Congregational Church had just ceased functioning, so all the money from the sale of the church and the other money they had was donated to build the Home. The old “Hospital Association” donated the equipment that could be used in the new hospital. The Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to solicit funds to complete the furnishings of the hospital.” Much of the hospital’s history is scattered in various printed form, but a cornerstone on the northeast of the administrator’s residence still bears witness to the contribution from the Clarence Eastman Congregational Church.
The present hospital facility located at 617 Liberty was built by Clay County in 1962. The open house material boasted of new features such as air conditioning, piped-in music, 37 beds of which four were electrically operated, conductive flooring, and modern kitchen equipment. In 1964, television sets were installed in patient rooms. A tornado seriously damaged the east part of the hospital in 1973 and it was quickly repaired. The building was enlarged and completely redecorated in 1987.
In 1993, an addition of 12,000 square feet was completed. It was designed to house eight physicians and to provide much needed space for the hospital. In 1998, four more significant additions were made to the facility. The Wellness/Fitness Center, an Outpatient Clinic, a Nurses Center and expansion of the kitchen storage area were completed in that renovation. An expansion of the Birthing Center was made in 2003.
Clay County Medical Center is a nonprofit medical center dependent upon the returns from patient care, a county tax levy and charitable donations from people who have an interest in providing quality medical care for this community. The mission of the Clay County Hospital Foundation is to aid the hospital in that endeavor by securing voluntary gift support for the Clay County Medical Center.