City once had several hospitals:Second of two parts

Published 12:00 am Monday, March 25, 2002

If hospitals were given numbers based on their historical appearances in Albert Lea, then Naeve Hospital would have to be ranked in sixth place.

Monday, March 25, 2002

If hospitals were given numbers based on their historical appearances in Albert Lea, then Naeve Hospital would have to be ranked in sixth place.

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Credit for starting Albert Lea’s first hospital goes to Dr. James M. Todd, a graduate of Wisconsin’s Beloit College and Northwestern University of Chicago. He interned with Dr. A. C Wedge of Albert Lea in the early 1880s. After practicing medicine in Madison, Minn., for a few years, Todd came back to Albert Lea in 1889 to become a local doctor.

He established a new medical facility named the Albert Lea Hospital, in a large home at the corner of what’s now Fountain Street and Lakeview Boulevard in 1894. It was advertised as &uot;a thoroughly equipped hospital with trained nurses, electric and medical baths, and with every convenience for treating chronic and surgical diseases.&uot;

Todd attempted to convert his small private hospital into a publicly owned institution in 1897. There was no great local interest in his proposal. When this failed, Todd sold his hospital building and moved to New York City.

(He continued to use the title of doctor for the rest of his life. However, Todd became involved with several family-owned construction, architectural and engineering firms Two of their best known projects were the reconstruction of colonial Williamsburg, Va., and the landmark Rockefeller Center in New York City. He died in 1939. Albert Lea’s Todd Avenue, incidentally, is named for another member of this family.)

About the time Todd closed his hospital and left Albert Lea, another doctor decided to start his own patient care facility.

Instead of converting a large residence into a hospital, Dr. Henrik Nissen decided to construct a new building intended exclusively for medical purposes.

Historical accounts say Nissen was born during 1864 in central Norway. He was educated at the University of Oslo, plus advanced medical studies in Berlin and Vienna.

Dr. Nissen had his three-story building constructed at 330-334 S. Broadway Ave. His new building had a drug store on the first floor, his offices and operating room on the second floor, and a 12-bed or 25-bed hospital on the third floor (historical accounts differ on this detail). Nissen’s Hospital was supplied with city water and electric lights.

Just when this particular hospital ceased operations isn’t known. One historical reference says Nissen practice medicine in Albert Lea for just six years, then moved to Minneapolis in the early 1900s so his children could live at home and attend the University of Minnesota. The doctor died in 1936.

What became known as both the Nissen Building and Nissen Block for many years has been the address for a variety of business ventures for over a century.

In the fall of 1937 Radio Station KATE established its first studios and offices on the third floor of this building in the former Nissen Hospital area.

Today, this site of one of Albert Lea’s privately owned hospitals is now part of the 300 Building.

Still another hospital was opened about 1898 by Dr. John P. von Berg. It was located on the same block as another private hospital owned by Dr. Hamilton H. Wilcox. For some reason, the two doctors decided not to combine their hospitals.

The 1899 city directory lists von Berg’s residence and doctor’s office as 245 W. Clark St. A notation made by the late Bidney Bergie on the back of a photo in the historical society’s files says von Berg’s hospital was located in the building on St. Mary Avenue just to the south of his home. (Both these buildings, located just to the east of First Lutheran Church, are now private residences.)

After his hospital ceased operations, Dr. von Berg continued to practice medicine in Albert Lea until his death in 1929.

The least known of the five private hospitals in Albert Lea was the one owned and operated by Dr. Frank A. Blackmer. It’s mentioned on page 285 of the book, &uot;History of Freeborn County,&uot; by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge. (This particular doctor died in 1900.)

A thesis written in 1966 by Walter Steven Bennett for his BA degree at St. Mary’s College in Winona was based on the history of medicine in Freeborn County. He explained what evolved from this early era of medical care in Albert Lea with:

&uot;The phase of private hospitals, though they provided a useful and necessary service, reached its finale in 1904 when a hospital owned by Dr. J. P. von Berg closed its doors. This establishment and its predecessors suffered from acute instability. Each had sought to promote its own existence by vigorously competing for life-giving patronage. Consequently, many private hospitals, limited by the personal funds of their owners, were unable to withstand the financial strain of difficult times. Thus by 1904, Dr. Wilcox operated the only remaining hospital in the county. The populace of Freeborn County increasingly pressed for a permanent public hospital once they realized the inadequacies of the private institutions. Upright citizens soon campaigned for the sponsorship of just such a hospital. The following circular letter was distributed among the churches and fraternal societies in the county on Nov. 20, 1904.

&uot;The question of establishing a general hospital for Freeborn County and vicinity has been discussed for some time. A number of doctors have tried at different times to maintain hospitals on their own account and at one time there were at least four private hospitals in operation, none making a success, each jealous of the other, and none furnishing the accommodations patients should have, and it has been demonstrated that private hospitals cannot be maintained. … The Commercial Club of Albert Lea has taken up the matter, and after a thorough investigation has decided that the most practical method of operating a general hospital is to organize a hospital board …&uot;

As Bennett mentioned, the hospital started by Wilcox in 1897 was still open. It was then known in 1905 as the Albert Lea Hospital, a name Wilcox appropriated the same year Dr. Todd closed his hospital and left the city.

In 1905 the newly formed City and County Hospital Association took over the Wilcox building at the corner of South Washington Avenue and West Clark Street. It was used as the area’s medical care facility until the Naeve Hospital building on Fountain Street was completed in 1911.