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The Huntington Memorial Hospital closed its doors in 1958.
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HUNTINGTON --
A surgeon by training, Dr. Henry D. Hatfield (1875-1962) not only practiced
medicine,
he also practiced politics. In 1906, he was elected to the McDowell
County Court (the local governing body,
a precursor to today's county
commission). Elected to the West Virginia Senate in 1909,
he served as Senate
president in 1911.
In 1912, at
age 37, Hatfield was elected governor, to that date the state's youngest
governor ever.
After his four-year term as governor ended in 1917, he briefly
served as a military doctor,
then moved to Huntington and established a medical
partnership with Dr. Archibald Kessler.
Keller had
opened a small hospital at 4th Avenue and 5th Street in 1904, then sold it and
in 1911 built a new,
much larger hospital at 6th Avenue and 1st Street. Once the
partnership was forged between the two doctors,
the Kessler Hospital became the
Kessler-Hatfield Hospital. It was renamed Huntington Memorial Hospital in 1928.
That same
year saw Hatfield return to politics when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
He
was defeated in a bid for reelection in 1934, and after leaving the
Senate
re-established his medical practice in Huntington.
In his "A
History of the Cabell County Medical Society in West Virgnia, 1890-1985," Dr.
Charles H. Moffat,
the respected Marshall University history professor, wrote
that during its most successful period Memorial Hospital
included a nursing
school and a cancer center and was affiliated with three leading Washington,
D.C., hospitals.
Kessler died
in 1944. In the late 1950s, Memorial Hospital was beset by financial
difficulties. It closed its doors
in 1958. In 1959, the federal government moved
in and sold the defunct hospital's equipment to satisfy tax claims.
The
following year the building was sold at public auction. Later it was demolished
and a shopping center,
anchored by a Big Bear supermarket, was built on the
property.
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Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Jun. 08 , 2015
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