Akron Life June 2023

PARTING SHOT

Healing for All Akron, 1898 by Shawn Davis, photo courtesy of Summit Memory/Akron-Summit County Public Library and the Alumni Association of Akron City Hospital School of Nursing “ ”

During the turn-of-the-20th century, getting sick in Akron meant going to the Bartges mansion — it housed Akron City Hospital, which was the first in the city and surprisingly has roots in an ordinary blacksmith. During the time of industrializa tion, Boniface DeRoo, a long-time Middlebury resident born in the Netherlands, rec ognized the need for a congregate facility for healing. He gifted his 5-acre estate off East Market Street and dictated in his will that the hospital should treat all patients the same regardless of race, creed, sex or ability to pay. In its first year, 40 opera tions were performed and 143 patients were cared for in the 21-bed hospital that opened Oct. 13, 1892. Decades later, it merged with the St. Thomas Medical Center and became Summa Health. Breakthroughs included developing a spinal meningitis treat ment and having the first accredited radiology department in the U.S. The regional health care powerhouse is still operating under the same principles of equality today.

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JUNE 2023 | akronlife.com