This property at Wyoming Avenue and Sharpe Street became the site of what was first known as Nesbitt West Side Hospital, and later Nesbitt Memorial Hospital. Photo published in the Wilkes-Barre Record, Feb. 17, 1912.

This property at Wyoming Avenue and Sharpe Street became the site of what was first known as Nesbitt West Side Hospital, and later Nesbitt Memorial Hospital. Photo published in the Wilkes-Barre Record, Feb. 17, 1912.

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<p>Nesbitt</p>

Nesbitt

At a meeting of local physicians held inside the Luzerne County Medical Society on West Market Street in Kingston on Feb. 1, 1912, preliminary plans were discussed to build a hospital somewhere on the West Side of the Susquehanna River.

“The exact location has not been determined,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Feb. 2, 1912.

In today’s world, it would take months if not years to select a site after dealing with property transfers, zoning and planning board meetings, environmental studies and building contracts.

Within two weeks of the meeting on the first of February in 1912, property was donated for the hospital.

“Through the active interest and generosity of Abram Nesbitt, a site has already been secured for the proposed West Side Hospital,” the Record reported Feb. 10, 1912.

The site of the Nesbitt West Side Hospital, renamed in 1928 to Nesbitt Memorial Hospital, was owned by the estate of Lawrence Myers at the corner of Wyoming Avenue and Sharpe Street in Dorrancetown. The residence was built by A.J. Pringle, who constructed other homes along Wyoming Avenue.

“It is 190 feet on Wyoming Avenue and 200 feet on Sharpe Street and it contains a commodious building of about 15 rooms. Steps will at once be taken to make the necessary alterations and it is hoped to have the hospital in operation not later than the first of May,” the Record reported.

Following the Feb. 1, 1912 meeting, Nesbitt worked to purchase the property at Wyoming Avenue and Sharpe Street, only to donate the land on Feb. 17, 1912.

The West Side Hospital Association filed an application in Luzerne County Court for a charter to operate a hospital, a charter that was granted in May 1912. Renovations to the 15-room building took place during the summer and early fall of 1912.

Finally, the West Side Hospital opened its doors to the public on Oct. 7, 1912.

“On the first floor are several private rooms, the superintending nurse’s office, the nurses’ dining room, kitchens, pantries,” the Record reported Oct. 8, 1912.

The basement was used as an accident ward with an entrance at the rear of the building. An elevator that was constructed took nurses, doctors and patients to the second and third floors.

“On the second floor are the operating and etherizing rooms, the sterilization closets, dressing and supply rooms and a number of wards. The operation room has been completely equipped with table, baths, instrument cabinets. It is lighted with electricity,” the Record reported.

The third floor consisted of 10 beds in a single room with three private rooms holding three beds each.

“Everywhere was a spotless whiteness, the walls, the beds, the linen looked very inviting,” the newspaper reported.

One of the first patients to have surgery at the newly opened Nesbitt West Side Hospital was 8-year-old David W. Davis, who suffered a fractured skull while saving his dog from being struck by a locomotive on the D.L.& W. Railroad tracks in Dorranceton on Oct. 12, 1912.

“The boy was picked up and carried to his home where his head wound was dressed and Dr. M. C. Rumbaugh was summoned who removed the child to Nesbitt West Side Hospital where he was operated on,” the Record reported Oct. 14, 1912. The boy survived.

Due to the rapid expansion of the West Side, officials who ran Nesbitt Memorial Hospital realized they needed a bigger facility in the mid-1920s. The 15-room building closed in November 1927 as ground was broken March 28, 1928, for a much larger, brick structure that opened the first week of December 1928.

On Sept. 14, 1928, workmen placed a large stone with the chiselled words, “Nesbitt Memorial Hospital” above the main entrance.

“When its doors are formally opened the communities of the West Side will have one of the finest institutions in Northeastern Pennsylvania dedicated to the care of the sick and injured,” the Record reported Nov. 15, 1929.

Scores of women applied and attended the Nesbitt Hospital School of Nursing through the decades.

Court records of the Estate of Abram Nesbitt say Nesbitt Memorial Hospital continued to provide medical services as a subsidiary of the Nesbitt Hospital Foundation.

In 1992, Nesbitt Memorial Hospital ceased to exist as a separate intuition when the facility became an affiliate of the Wyoming Valley Health Care System, Inc, eventually being sold to Commonwealth Health System.