Draft:Hugh Chatham Health

Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, Inc., located in Elkin, North Carolina. Prior to the opening of Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in 1931, the people of the Elkin area which encompasses part of Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin counties, were served by a small privately owned hospital, opened in 1924 by Dr. Henry C. Salmons and Dr. Robert Garvey. Construction of the building began in 1922. Public records show that the building was constructed on a site which had been the establishment of “Bell’s Storehouse” which burned to the ground around 1900. The lot was purchased by Dr. Salmons in 1921. Dr. Salmons with the help of Dr. Robert Garvey constructed a building on the corner of Church and Main Streets of Elkin, which housed Turner Drug Company (later to become Royall Drug Company) on the lower floor and a 14-room hospital on the second floor. One room was used for a laboratory, one for an operating room; one for a sterilizing room and two for offices. The kitchen was located in the rear of the building.

The hospital operated for two years and closed when Dr. Garvey moved to Winston-Salem to continue his practice there, but the need for a permanent hospital had been demonstrated and a movement was underway to build a bigger and more modern hospital. After the small hospital closed, residents of Elkin and surrounding area were forced to travel to Winston-Salem, Statesville, North Wilkesboro, Mount Airy and other places.

With the closing of the small privately owned hospital, a group of community leaders and citizens, under the direction of Dr. L. B. Abernathy, pastor of the Elkin First Methodist Church, assisted by the western North Carolina Methodist Conference, South and the J. B. Duke Endowment, worked to secure a hospital facility to provide health care for the residents of Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin counties.

Rev. Abernathy, for many years, sensed the need for a hospital to serve the people of Elkin in Western North Carolina. He is considered ‘the father of the hospital movement.’ In the throes of the Great Depression, ‘it was a big undertaking to finance such a project through gifts alone, but Rev. Abernathy persevered and in mid—1930, the Duke Foundation approved plans for a new hospital in Elkin which became the Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, named for Hugh Gwyn Chechen, because of his generosity and that of his family.

Mr. Chatham was president of Chatham Manufacturing Company, a community leader and philanthropist. Mr. Chatham died on October 10, 1930, before his dream of a hospital for Elkin became a reality. Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital was opened to the public on Sunday, April 19, 1931 and patients were accepted on the following day. The fourteen acre tract of land for the building was given by Chatham Manufacturing Company.

In 1967, the hospital Board of Trustees realized that Elkin needed a larger, more modern hospital. After studies and serious consideration of the problem, the trustees decided to build a new facility. It would be a 100-bed, all private room facility and the old hospital would be converted into a nursing center. The new hospital was opened on June 29, 1973.

Ref List

Sources: Elkin‘s First Hospital, a history compiled by Jack Partin, May, 1985 Elkin, 1889—1989, A Centennial History, The Town of Elkin Joint Committee for the Collection of Historical Information, 1989 The Elkin Tribune, 50 Year Anniversary Edition, September 18, 1961 The Communique’, bimonthly publication, Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, 1989—1992 History of Yadkin County by Rutledge and Welborn History of Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital Auxiliary by Grace Laffoon April 20, 1987 The Elkin Tribune, January 6, 1938.