Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Series 14: Medical
West Wind as Hospital
William and Sally Creech Memorial Hospital

West Wind as Hospital, c. 1949 – 1958

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TAGS: West Wind, hospitals, William and Sally Creech Memorial Hospital, community, Medical Advisory Board, Board of Trustees, Dr. Gordon Brown, infirmary, X-ray, EKG machine

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Following the closure of the Boarding School in 1949 many of the facilities were re-purposed. One of the most important of the re-purposed buildings was West Wind. Originally intended to be the girl’s main dormitory, the building was newly built, (1940) and large in scale. The decision to create a hospital in the new building and to move the Infirmary operation to West Wind with an expanded staff and improved equipment, was made.

The decision was not made easily by the School but it soon proved to be very popular with the surrounding community. The Hospital did well in the early years, but eventually became under-utilized as services in Harlan became easier to reach with improvements in the roads. In 1951 a survey was conducted to determine the desire for such a facility. The community sentiment was one of the major factors in the hospital creation. Such a facility was badly needed in the valley and with the closure of the boarding school, it also promised to be a revenue stream for the institution. However, the 1951 Fu Liang Chang Survey conducted just a few short years later pointed out the economics of such an undertaking were draining the School and were not sustainable. Economics won out. Plans were made to close the hospital and to run it on the clinic model somewhat along the same lines as the earlier, and more economical, Infirmary.

Like the Farm, the Hospital fell victim to the rapid changes occurring in Harlan County and around the country. Better transportation, better roads, larger hospitals in near-by towns, better medical equipment, etc., drained the patients away and the staff were left struggling to fill beds and maintain the standard hospital models.

GALLERY: West Wind as Hospital:
Excerpt from 1951 Survey by Fu Liang Chang

TRANSCRIPTION
Excerpt from 1951 Survey by Fu Liang Chang

(NOTE: The text is slightly edited.)

(5) Concerning the Hospital …

Prior to September 1949 when the change took place from the boarding high school to the consolidated primary school, the hospital was an absolute necessity for it served both the community and the boarding school. Today the hospital is somewhat in a like position in which Pine Mountain Settlement School found itself before the change. It serves a much wider clientele but somewhat uncertain, than the immediate neighborhood. It has facilities which are not at the moment being fully utilized due to the lack of patients, and personnel who are expensive and sometimes even unhappy because of forced idleness. As referred to before, the hospital is the one institution which all the community at Pine Mountain unanimously want to keep. It enjoys a wider contact with the community than any other branch of service of the settlement school.

Notwithstanding all this, the hospital is run in red by about $14,000 a year. If the deficit can be easily carried without jeopardizing the full development of the settlement school and if suitable medical personnel can be procured, let us by all means maintain the status quo service of the hospital to the community. In case the present difficulties should prove insurmountable, then should we not try to meet the needs of the immediate community first, just as the consolidated does in the place of the boarding high school? Should the future development of the settlement school and growth of Pine Mountain warrant, the hospital can be expanded according to actual needs. However, we fully realize that there are other considerations than finance and the present needs of the community, we therefore recommend to the Medical Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees to examine the suggestions made by Dr. Gordon Brown who recently resigned after 15 months of service as the superintendent of the hospital, as contained in his letter of October first, 1951, to the Director of Pine Mountain Settlement School. We quote two paragraphs from Dr. Brown’s letter :

“In the line of my experience here, I feel a medical service more in the nature of a well- equipped doctor’s office and small infirmary would be more appropriate to the needs of the community and would not involve the considerable expense of maintaining a full hospital staff. A staff consisting of a doctor and perhaps two nurses would be adequate in such an arrangement, using the present building to a more limited extent.

Any case of serious nature or requiring prolonged hospitalization could be sent elsewhere as is now occasionally the practice. The equipment, x-ray and EKG machine, I believe, are essential to a good medical practice and would in such an event still prove a worthy investment.”

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The hospital was dedicated c. 1949 as the William and Sally Creech Memorial Hospital. A plaque was created which now is located in the lower far right west-facing room in the building.

[plaque image]

GALLERY: West Wind as Hospital

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See Also:
1951 FU LAING CHANG Survey “Whither Pine Mountain?” FULL TEXT

THE PINE MOUNTAIN STORY – CH. IV A PMSS publication with reference to the Hospital

WEST WIND History and images of the building

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