Akron’s City Hospital was created from a fund left by an early resident, Boniface DeRoo. The fund, which represented the lifetime savings of a frugal hard working man, amounted to $10,000. The first building used for the hospital was an old frame house at the corner of Broadway Street and Center Street. Patients were seen,…
It began as a dream by Boniface DeRoo, a Dutch immigrant whose will provided approximately $10,000 for the establishment of Akron’s first hospital. More than nine years elapsed after DeRoo’s death in 1883 before a group of 12 men organized the City Hospital Association. The association purchased the Bartges Homestead in 1892 and opened the…
Opened in 1892, City Hospital provided a place where the sick and injured could be treated with the best principles of medical practice.
One of City Hospitals greatest supporters was industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber. By 1904, O.C. Barber had donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to the institution.
The main building of City Hospital was constructed in 1892, with the training school for nurses being added in 1897. The first class of nurses had just two students.
In 1989 Akron’s City Hospital and St. Thomas Hospital merged to form the Summa Health. The new company runs a network of hospitals including Akron, Barberton, St. Thomas, and Western Reserve.
“The City Hospital of Akron, founded in 1892, is a voluntary hospital with a self-perpetuation board of trustees. The institution has 373 beds and a nurses’ home to accommodate 140 people. The staff consists of 91 doctors and 628 employees.”
DeRoo, a native of The Netherlands, and longtime resident of Middlebury, left $10,000 in his will for the founding of a hospital in Akron. The will spent many years in litigation because of a claim for compensation related to nursing, laundry and care by a family DeRoo boarded with. The suit was eventually settled, and DeRoo’s…
The City Hospital of Akron had its inception in a fund left by an early resident, Boniface DeRoo. The fund which represented the lifetime savings of a frugal hard working man, amounted to $10,000. The first building used for the hospital was an old frame house at the corner of Broadway Street and Center Street.…
Founded in 1892, Akron’s City hospital was the first accredited radiology department in the United States. The hospital was also a pioneer in open heart surgery. Akron City Hospital is also the birthplace of basketball legends LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Today, the hospital is part of the large Summa Health hospital system.