This Month in Rochester History

An important community institution was born fifty years ago this month.  On July 11, 1965, a group of 400 people assembled on some pasture land recently owned by Howard L. McGregor, Jr.  The property was just west of St. John Lutheran School, and the crowd watched as Ormond S. Wessels pushed a shovel into the ground to mark the beginning of construction for Crittenton Hospital.

Two years later, Rochester's first full-service general hospital would open its doors to patients.  Before that day, the community had been served by small hospitals or clinics such as Avon Center and Woodruff-Geiger; residents had been accustomed to traveling to Pontiac, Mount Clemens or Detroit for anything the local clinics couldn't handle. Building a fully-equipped hospital and emergency room was a huge step forward for the community and its health care needs.

View Crittenton Hospital Medical Center's video, above, to see how the facility and campus have grown and changed since 1965.