St. Mary's Hospital ; Saint Mary's Hospital

Handcolored postcard with divided back. Photograph of the exterior of St. Mary's Hospital. The building has a gabled roof and is surrounded by trees and grass with residential houses in the background. Electrical poles and wiring can be seen bordering the bottom of the postcard. Text along top left edge of photograph reads, "St. Mary's Hospital, Saginaw, Mich." Back: Handwritten address and correspondence. Cancelled one cent postage stamp postmarked Waldo, Wisconsin, July 23rd, 1914 at 6:00pm. ; Institution operated by: Daughters of Charity Opened on 22 August 1874, with the arrival of four Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The original frame building, the former Monitor Hotel, proved inadequate and so in 1875 a new building was begun on this site and the hospital incorporated as St. Mary's. Its first patients were principally injured lumbermen, whom the sisters visited in the camps to sell five-dollar tickets that provided total hospital care, including medicine and surgery. This health insurance, one of the first in the nation, was the hospital's main support and enabled it to move to a better location in 1876. Over the years the hospital expanded and modernized to care for more patients as well as to provide an increasing variety of medical and educational facilities. ; Daughters of Charity ; Color postcard; 3.5 x 5.5 in.; 8.89 x 13.97 cm.