Cottage Hospital history

1905 – Mary Plumb, a teacher and later vice principal of Leland & Gray Seminary, moves into the Fletcher House.

Nantucket Cottage Hospital was founded in 1911, conceived by the visions of Doctor John S. Grouard and Doctor Benjamin Sharp.

Despite objections from neighbors and other obstacles, Doctor Sharp and his colleagues persevered, and in December 1912, the Hospital Endowment Committee purchased the old Charles Este homestead on West Chester Street for $6,000.

From that day in 1938, for several years, it served as both home and doctor’s office.

Grace Cottage Hospital opened its doors on August 7, 1949.

1950 – Grace Cottage Auxiliary inaugurates the annual Fair Day fundraiser.

1953 – Grace Cottage opens Stratton Nursing Home, a nursing home attached to the hospital.

1974 – Grace Cottage Hospital’s all-volunteer ambulance service is inaugurated.

When she died in 1977, she named three local not-for-profit organizations as the beneficiaries of her estate — one was Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

Within a year, Hattie Stratton’s house next door was added as specified in her will, and in 1978, Ruth Heins donated her house next door to the growing hospital campus.

1980 – Grace Cottage opens Heins Home as a licensed, residential care home.

1990 – The community responds to the “To Be Or Not To Be” campaign; $1,000,000 is raised to keep the hospital going.

1992 – Grace Cottage opens the Wolff Outpatient building to provide space for Occupational, Physical, and Speech therapy as well as a variety of specialists who travel from elsewhere to see patients one day a week.

1994 – Grace Cottage Foundation was created to raise funds for the facility.

1996 – Grace Cottage opens Messenger Valley Pharmacy.

2000 – Garden of Grace dedicated.

2006 – New kitchen is completed for Grace Cottage Hospital and a new 57-space parking lot is completed.

2009 – Community Wellness Room is added to the Heins Building.

2013 – Grace Cottage accepts the gift of the Dennison House from Doctor Carlos and Ruth Otis’s daughters.

2015 – Sheila B. Friedli Entrance and Catherine B. Stratton Reception Area creates new main entry point for the hospital.

Nantucket’s new community hospital, the first new medical facility on the island in more than 60 years, opened for patient care on February 20, 2019.