Way Back Wednesday in Calhoun County---March 28-April 3

This week’s Way Back Wednesday in Calhoun County Blog picks up where we left off two weeks ago.

While Calhoun County had numerous doctors and apothecaries (druggists), there were no real medical facilities until the early 20th Century. These facilities were concentrated mainly in Anniston since it was the county seat and the largest of the four cities within the county.

One of the oldest hospitals in Anniston was started by nurses Oma Dickert and Olga Landt while working in Dr. J. C. Moore’s private clinic on Quintard Avenue. Ms. Dickert spoke with other doctors in town about a hospital and they agreed to support the venture. In 1908, the two nurses rented a house on Marvin Hill and opened the Anniston Hospital. The need for nurses was great and the Anniston Hospital began training young women to serve as nurses. The hospital temporarily moved to a home at 14th Street and Leighton Avenue before returning to Marvin Hill.

Shortly after Ms. Dickert opened the Anniston Hospital, some of the doctors who practiced at the facility formed the St. Luke’s Company with a plan to merge with Sellers Hospital. When the deal fell through the Anniston Hospital was purchased by the company and renamed St. Luke’s Hospital. In 1914, a 40-bed hospital was constructed at 12th Street and Quintard Avenue under the name St. Luke’s.

Around the same time that the Anniston Hospital was founded, Dr. E. M. Sellers and Dr. W. D. Sellers organized their hospital at 5th Street and Leighton Avenue. Sellers Hospital was a small, 25-bed capacity hospital that was limited to only a few doctors. In 1917, Dr. Neil Sellers bought the hospital from the original owners. Unfortunately, the original Sellers Hospital burned in 1919. The facility was rebuilt and by 1923 the medical community had a 50-bed hospital on the site. By 1929, the Sellers Hospital and all its contents was sold to the city of Anniston.

Eventually, Sellers and St. Luke’s hospitals were merged into one city hospital in the old Sellers Hospital facility. The facility expanded to a 60-bed facility under the name Garner Hospital until the 1940s when the Anniston Memorial Hospital was built. The old Seller Hospital site served as a hotel for a short time before it became a nursing home facility, which is currently under the management of Noland.

By the start of World War II, the city of Anniston set up funds to build a general hospital but due to the war demand for steel the construction plans had to be put on hold. The Anniston Memorial Hospital construction begin in 1943 with assistance from the Federal Works Agency. By 1944, the hospital’s board of directors met which precipitated the opening of a 100-bed facility to treat adults, children, and infants. In the 1950s, a pharmacy and nursing school were added along with an increase in bed numbers. An intensive care unit came into existence in the 1960s and by the 1970s the facility was upgraded to a regional hospital with an emergency room. The facility eventually became known as Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center.

The main competition to the city hospital was a private hospital located on Leighton Avenue. The Stringfellow family donated their Italian-villa style home to be used as a tuberculosis sanitarium in the 1930s. The villa was in need of major repairs so in the 1950s a modern, 50-bed hospital facility was constructed on the site where the original sanitarium had operated. This new structure had walkways with glass doors that opened onto terraces for the patients to enjoy the outdoors while recuperating. In the 1980s, the facilities were further modernized to create a larger hospital with surgery suites and an emergency room. By 2017, the Stringfellow Memorial Hospital was purchased by Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center. With the sale of Stringfellow, Calhoun County has only one large medical conglomerate to provide healthcare.

These structures were not the only medical facilities in the county. Piedmont and Jacksonville both had small facilities to treat non-surgical cases. Piedmont’s hospital was shuttered and Jacksonville Hospital was eventually sold to Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center. There was also a medical complex located at Fort McClellan but that is a story for another day.

To learn more about the history of Calhoun County pick up a copy of Images of America: Calhoun County (ISBN 978-0738589985), Anniston (ISBN 978-0738506012), or Anniston Revisited (ISBN 978-1467114752) by Kimberly O’Dell.