St. Mary's Hospital

The need for medical facilities in fast-growing Saginaw Valley led Father Francis Van der Bom and Dr. Benjamin B. Ross to organize support for a hospital. It opened with the arrival of four Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul on August 22, 1874. The original frame house proved inadequate; 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. The staff devised a health insurance plan of five dollars a year to raise funds. 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. As it moves into its second century St. Mary’s Hospital anticipates a future of continued care and service.