Monroe's first hospital opened 100 years ago today
One hundred years ago today, Monroe’s first hospital opened.
Monroe Hospital began Monday, Aug. 21, 1922, at 120 Maple Blvd., just off Elm Ave. It was a long-awaited addition to the city.
“Monroe has never had a hospital and has felt the need of one for a great many years," reads an article in what was then called The Monroe Evening News. "Patients are being taken to Detroit and Toledo hospitals every day. There is no double of its success. Many people visited the hospital on Monday and were loud in their praise of it.”
The three-story brick hospital was described as modern, first-class and fire-proof.
“The hospital is called the Monroe. The hospital will have all the modern equipment to make an institution of this kind first-class. The hospital is well-lighted and is a beautiful building. The operating room is fitted up with the very latest equipment and is located on the first floor. Several patients who underwent operations on Monday and Tuesday morning are contained in the hospital. There are 20 beds. The sterilizing equipment was installed by Scanlon and Morris of Madison, Wis. and is of the very best grade,” The Monroe Evening News reported. “The building has been inspected by the state fire insurance department and has been pronounced fire-proof and absolutely safe in every way.”
Miss Grage was the hospital's superintendent.
"She's a trained nurse of much experience and who had charge of the operating room of the Children's Hospital in Detroit," the paper reported. "Miss Fisher of Toledo, a trained nurse who graduated from a hospital in Ann Arbor, is assisting Miss Grage. Both women come to the officials of this hospital highly recommended."
Monroe physician Dr. Arthur W. Karch (1888-1940) is credited with establishing the Monroe Hospital. Dr. Karch came to Monroe from Norway, Mich., in 1918.
“At a time when Monroe didn't have a hospital, he quickly began mapping plans for a private one by forming a trusteeship consisting of himself and several industrialists and businesspeople,” according to Monroe News archives. “The place flourished, in part through the efforts of Dr. Karch, who lived on E. Elm Ave. and tirelessly made himself available to patients who demanded only his care.”
A year after it opened, Dr. Karch spoke highly of the Monroe Hospital in the publication “Michigan Medicine.”
“After waiting patiently for years, the city of Monroe can now boast a nicely equipped little hospital as there is in the state. It is of pressed brick construction, three stories in height and can accommodate 30 patients. It has all the latest equipment, including X-ray, modern sterilizer and operating rooms. Since the opening last August, it has been filled to capacity,” Dr. Karch said.
Before the opening of Monroe Hospital, Monroe residents were treated at doctors' offices. The first doctor came to the region in 1784, and the first local medical practice opened in 1891, according to Monroe News archives. Nurses frequently visited schools to examine children.
Monroe had plans to build a hospital much earlier, but they were waylaid by the Spanish Flu pandemic and World War I, according to Rick Grassley, a local historian.
As early as January, 1918, the Chamber of Commerce was seriously considering building a hospital.
“Judging from the remarks that were made by a number of the members, another year will not pass without Monroe having a hospital,” reported the paper.
Seven years after Monroe Hospital opened--in 1929--a second, slightly larger hospital opened in the city. Mercy Hospital was started by Sisters of St. Joseph in Kalamazoo and was located at 740 N. Macomb St.
In 1949, after Dr. Karch’s death, the local Lutheran Church leaders assumed responsibility of Monroe Hospital and operated it until 1962, when a new facility was constructed on Stewart Rd. and renamed Memorial Hospital, Tom Adamich, Monroe historian, said.
Eventually, the original Monroe Hospital building became a convalescent center and was demolished around 1990.
Monroe/Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital merged to form the Mercy Memoria Hospital System in the 1970s. The old Mercy Hospital was part of the complex, until it was torn down around 2005. Since 2015, the hospital, now called ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital, has been operated by ProMedica.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe's first hospital marks 100 years
