Grace Cottage Hospital history

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

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

1984 – Doctor Carlos Otis is named Vermont Physician of the Year.

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.

In 1994, Grace Cottage Foundation was created specifically to raise funds for the hospital and family health clinic.

1995 – Grace Cottage Family Health receives federal certification as a Rural Health Clinic.

1996 – Grace Cottage opens Messenger Valley Pharmacy.

1998 – The 19-bed Grace Cottage Hospital moves up the hillside into a brand new, 18,750 sq.-ft. building behind the original Fletcher house, and Grace Cottage Family Health expands to use all the space in the Fletcher house.

2000 – Grace Cottage applies for and is designated as the first Critical Access Hospital in the State of Vermont.

2002 – The 18-bed Stratton Nursing Home closes.

2007 – Heins Home Residential Care closes and residents move up the street to Valley Cares (West River Valley Assisted Living). Valley Cares is a separate organization, not affiliated with Grace Cottage.

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

2012 – Messenger Valley Pharmacy is expanded and renovated, tripling the size of the original space.

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

2014 – Grace Cottage begins hospitalist program.

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

2019 — Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital voted “Best Hospital,” “Best ER,” “Best Place to Work,” “Best Pediatrician,” and “Best Physical Therapy” in the Brattleboro Reformers Readers Choice Award.