Another view of Wesson Memorial Hospital in Springfield, around 1900-1910, taken from Ingraham Terrace looking toward High Street. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.
The hospital in 2014:
Another view of the Wesson Memorial Hospital, looking toward High Street from Ingraham Terrace. The building’s exterior hasn’t changed much, except for small additions on the left and right hand sides, which I’m assuming are elevators. The surrounding neighborhood has changed, though. The landscaped yard on the right-hand side is now a parking lot, where I took the 2014 photo of the same building in this post. As mentioned there, the hospital was established in 1900 by Daniel B. Wesson of Smith & Wesson fame, and today the building is part of Baystate Medical Center.
When I worked there in the early seventies those front rooms were not used for patients. There were two modern wings at the back of the building with the ER in the back at the basement level. The area to the left of the photo was basement service area with a large cafeteria. The front rooms, the oldest part of the hospital, were offices and some therapy areas.
I have read G Wood Taylor was the architect of Wesson Memorial, the same Architect who designed a lot of Forest Park.
Did they demolish the Emergency Room at Wesson Memorial? My mother was a patient there in 1973.
That should have been kept as a Level 1 Trauma Center for Springfield, to ease some of the problems facing BayState Medical Center IMHO.
The emergency room area in the basement is now a Baystate pediatrics office
I did a student Practicum thru Holyoke Community College Nutrition program back in 1976 and was subsequently hired to work weekends and holidays. Great first “real” job. Very impressive facility until BMC fully swallowed Wesson Men by the late 70’s.