The Need for a Healing Haven in the Sawmills
Dr. G.A. Weed opens a hospital on Commercial Street to serve the broken bones and industrial injuries common to Seattle’s booming logging and mill camps.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
To meet the pressing wants of many persons on Puget Sound, needing medical and surgical aid, with comfortable rooms and good care at moderate prices, I have fitted up a hospital where every convenience and comfort will be provided in connection with experienced and skillful medical and surgical attendance. We aim to make this a permanent institution and to give special attention to cases of fracture and injuries of all kinds, constantly occurring in the saw mills, mines, and logging camps surrounding us. Seattle is centrally located with regard to these industries, and more accessible than any other point in the region. With the aid of these and always giving personal and thorough attention to its entire management, I hope to build up an institution indispensable to the sick and disabled who have no homes, and worthy of their confidence and that of the public. The hospital is in a pleasant and healthy locality, and the rooms neatly and cheerfully furnished.
“I aim to build up an institution indispensable to the sick and disabled who have no homes, and worthy of their confidence and that of the public.”
In 1876, Seattle’s infrastructure for the injured was built on individual initiative to support the dangerous labor of the timber industry. Today, the city’s complex health systems still balance the tension between treating the inevitable physical tolls of local industry and providing care for a transient, sometimes homeless, workforce.
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