Howdy Y'all Welcome Back...
I have reminisced about my respective towns and the small communities around here. Talked of the strength of it's residents and the simple way of life since forever. Lastly I had shown the Coal Miners Tribute outside of the new Town Hall in Richlands, Va and mentioned it used to be an old hospital with a lot of history and significance then it was torn down to erect the new Town Hall. I mentioned I was one of the countless children born there as well. I had moved away to a small town in North Carolina that I did like..but it just ain't home...
Here is my home where I grew up and have so many stories that there isn't enough space or time to do justice to. But when I moved back here and saw they had torn down the old hospital it saddened me. Felt kind of like losing a part of myself, part of my identity that can't ever be replaced. Maybe that sounds silly, sappy or misplaced romantic.
Times change and the value placed on a landmark I suppose tends to wane over the passing years but not to me. So we will look back and I will show you where I was born. It was once a grand old structure and the way it set atop the hill overlooking the town made it have a prestigious air. A new larger..more "advanced" hospital was built about five miles down the road and it rendered the old Mattie Williams obsolete.
I loved the place though and now I would like to show you a picture of how she used to look as I smile and fondly remember her..
Impressive back then wasn't she? But let me go back into her history and show you how it all began...and when.
On Washington Square, the hub of the town, the Hotel Richlands became the focal point of the 1890’s development. A few years after the company abandoned the hotel, one Alsom Hutton leased the building as the Old Dominion College. For six years the college offered education, culture, and entertainment to the community before finally closing its doors. After a fire destroyed much of the structure, Dr. W. R. Williams built the Mattie Williams Hospital on that site in 1915. He named it for his wife Mattie Lou Peery-Williams, sister of Gov. George C. Peery. Now the main highway is still named after Gov. G. C. Peery, but now more about the old hospital..
In 1917, J. A. Leslie recorded his observations on the hospital. “The building is imposing,” he stated, “standing as it does upon an elevated plateau, overlooking the town. The brick building has tall white columns on the front, approached by granolithic walks. The sanitarium…has ‘put Richlands on the map,[…]” The hospital maintained the Mattie Williams Hospital School of Nursing from approximately 1926 to 1935. The first staff nurses, who were the teaching nurses as well, were Miss Cope and Miss Lismoore. Both women were British and observed “high tea” each day. The training school employed local medical professionals to teach the classes. Among others, Dr. E. L. Jackson, local pharmacist, taught chemistry. Dr. Isaac Wickham Cunningham, well known and respected local physician, taught anatomy.
Dr. W. R. Williams died July 19, 1943. Dr. James P. Williams continued his father’s work until Dr. James death in 1961. Another member of the Mattie Williams family was Mattie’s nephew, James Peery. Medicine was figuratively in the blood as Dr. Peery’s grandfather was a Civil War surgeon.
Operating with a patient capacity of 69 in 1938, the hospital used only floors A, B, and G, the basement level. The top floor, C floor, housed personnel until housing for nurses and physicians became available. During the first year, the hospital records show 1,643 patients admitted and 49 births. Upon completion of the nearby nurses’ home, the C-floor space provided the hospital a 100-bed capacity. By the 1950’s, the need for more beds produced a west wing, opening on July 1, 1954, increasing capacity to 135 beds. Answering further need for space, the adjacent Clinic Building opened September 1, 1963, to house the increased staff of physicians, medical records, x-ray department, laboratory, and emergency department. In the 1970’s the clinic added two upper floors.
In 1977 and ownership transfer led to the dissolving of the partnership. By 1978, Humana, Inc., had purchased the institution, the practicing group had become Clinch Valley Physicians, and the hospital’s name was Clinch Valley Community Hospital. Records of 1982 showed the hospital had admitted 8,475 patients and delivered 603 babies. ( I was one of the lucky ones born in 1980). By this time, the number of physicians exceeded forty and employees numbered 350. Based on the July 1981 certificate of need application approval, Humana Hospital Clinch Valley opened in August 1983 and demolished the Clinch Valley Clinic Hospital on August 28, preparatory to building a new hospital.
After 1990, The Mattie closed for the last time. I remember well all the ghost stories told around Halloween revolving around that place. It was right above a funeral home Hurst-Scott and was a very short walk from the morgue to the parlor. For years after it's closing teenagers and thrill seekers would try sneaking into the hospital and make their way downstairs to the morgue for kicks to try and experience the paranormal or challenge the ghosts that were rumored to be trapped inside.. but now we fast forward to years later...
Following much heated debate, the town officials voted to obliterate the structure. Then they began building that new Town Hall and shortly after the Coal Miners Memorial was erected..I showed a picture of it a few days ago but I will post it here again so you can do a comparison and try to see the before and after as I do...
I never get tired of looking at that picture..
Now for the Town Hall replacement....and Memorial..
Now let's see if I can get a better shot of the Town Hall
It's a nice looking building...but it ain't nothing in comparison to the Mattie! Thanks for dropping in and checking out what I had today for you and Y'all remember those places that meant so much to you growing up and all the times you had there...and the history made before you ever got there...because one day some bunch of bureaucrats may come along and decide it isn't worth the effort and level it!
I will never forget you Mattie Williams and I am not alone!
