United Hospital Center history

This facility could accommodate twelve patients, and two years later a new wing was added to increase capacity to fifty beds. It was in March 1898 that Archibald K. Kessler, M.D., originally from Greenbrier County, WV, opened a hospital in Clarksburg on the corner of Water Street and Washington Avenue.

Harrison County Hospital In 1900, Harrison County Hospital was incorporated and built two years after the establishment of Kessler Hospital.

In 1903, Doctor Showalter purchased property at the corner of Water and West Main Streets, Clarksburg.

Another small hospital, the Clarksburg Sanitarium, was chartered in June 1907.

Doctor Showalter sold his interest in the hospital to Doctor John B. Payne who subsequently sold the property in 1908.

Doctor Mason obtained sole ownership in 1914 and began plans for a new hospital.

On November 18, 1915, a charter was issued to the Mason Hospital Company.

The company purchased the property adjacent to the Kessler Hospital, and by May 1916 plans were approved for a new hospital.

A new nursing program for Mason Hospital was instituted in 1917.

During the next year students were boarded in part of the former Kessler Hospital building, and in 1919 the Board of Directors of Mason Hospital purchased property across the street from the hospital to serve as nurses’ quarters.

Union Protestant Hospital Mason Hospital was renovated during 1928 by enclosing two open porches to provide four additional rooms; a fourth-floor diet kitchen was converted to a delivery room and a telephone switchboard was installed in the office.

The Mason Hospital had a capacity for 60 beds and 18 bassinets and it continued to function under that name until December 1933, when it reincorporated as a nonprofit institution: Union Protestant Hospital.

In 1948, DeSales hall, a modern six-story brick building, was constructed on Main Street adjacent to the hospital to provide housing and educational facilities for one hundred student nurses.

In 1955, it became the first Methodist-sponsored hospital in the state.

Three years later, the board of directors of Union Protestant Hospital purchased land on the southern border of Clarksburg, employed architects to design a new hospital, and held ground-breaking ceremonies on November 2, 1958.

The Merger It became apparent about 1965 that St Mary’s Hospital physical plant needed to be replaced with a modern healthcare facility, and the Sisters of St Joseph decided to construct a new hospital on the site of St Mary’s.

The Union Protestant Hospital on Washington Avenue in downtown Clarksburg was razed in 1968.

In November 1969, the Harrison County Medical Society passed a resolution in favor of the merger of Union Protestant and St Mary’s hospitals.

United Hospital Center is the result of a merger between St Mary’s and Union Protestant hospitals in 1970.

In January 1977, the properties of Downtown Division and DeSales Hall were sold to Empire National Bank, Clarksburg.

Joined with West Virginia University Hospitals in 1997 to form the West Virginia United Health System

The new UHC opened in 2010 and is located along Interstate 79 in Bridgeport.