1894 The precursor to Columbia Hospital, St. John’s Infirmary opened
in 1848 by what is today Cathedral Square, making it Wisconsin’s first
private hospital. This photo shows a temporary quarantine building of
St. John’s being used to isolate smallpox patients in 1894.
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1896 St. Mary’s Training School for Nurses – later St. Mary’s School of
Nursing – was established in 1894 and remained open for 75 years.
This photo, from 1896, shows members of its first graduating class,
which included seven lay nurses and nine sisters.
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1910 By the turn of the century, the 1857-hospital needed major
renovations. Deemed too costly to repair, it was condemned and a
new hospital was constructed. On June 28, 1910, the new St. Mary’s
Hospital opened. The 200-bed hospital cost around $500,000 to build.
Today, the building remains in use as The Heritage Center.
1908 In 1857, now renamed St. Mary’s Hospital, construction began
on the Northpoint location. The new hospital, which cost $14,000,
had six wards and capacity for 55 patients. Above, the new Northpoint
location as seen in 1908.
M ARCH
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1919 Just across town on North Maryland Avenue, the new Columbia
Hospital opened on January 20, 1919. With an estimated cost of
$365,000, the new hospital had a state-of-the-art laboratory, X-ray
room and even private patient rooms with telephones.
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1930s For extended periods during the 1930s, Columbia’s laboratory
was the state’s only repository for radium, which stored the valuable
and dangerous substance in a separate lead vault.
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1938 Like St. Mary’s, Columbia Hospital also had its own nursing
school, located just adjacent to the hospital on Maryland Avenue.
Above, students at the Columbia Hospital School for Nursing hang
out at the school’s entrance. Today, the Columbia College of Nursing
continues to graduate highly skilled and compassionate nurses.
1930s A technologist, Dr. Sam Morton and Dr. Walter Southcott are
seen preparing a patient for an X-ray..
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1949 Columbia Hospital made history when doctors (pictured above)
performed surgery using the first artificial kidney machine. St. Mary’s
Hospital also made medical history 88 years earlier when Dr. E.B.
Wolcott, Chief Surgeon at St. Mary’s, performed the first surgical
kidney removal in modern medical history in 1861.
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1950 With the growing demand for orthopaedic, thoracic, vascular
and pediatric surgery, Columbia Hospital added additional operating
rooms in the 1950s, as seen in the picture above.
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1973 In 1965, an $8.7 million addition opened at Columbia Hospital.
Above is the entrance to the new Columbia Hospital’s Emergency
Department as seen in 1973. In 1982, Columbia’s Emergency Department
was the first unit in Wisconsin to be open 24-hours and staffed with
physicians and nurses specially trained in Emergency Medicine.
1950s To accommodate the post-war baby boom,
Columbia Hospital expanded its maternity space. In 1952,
a record 1,200 births took place at Columbia. Pictured
above is a newborn isolette from the early 1950s.
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