New photographs and documents in the Northfield History Collaborative collection help tell the early story of theĀ Northfield Hospital.

Scans of the first minutes book of the Northfield Hospital Association tell the story from its beginning. The first page describes how, in 1910, the local International Order of Odd Fellows Home had decided to no longer operate the hospital on its grounds. They offered to rent the facility to a hospital board for $60/month.

The private Northfield Hospital Association operated from the Odd Fellows Home for just a few months before they decided to relocate. On Sept. 17, 1910, the board took the following action:

“It was decided after considerable discussion to refuse to accept the lease offered by the board of directors of the I.O.O.F. Hospital. After due consideration the secretary was instructed to buy the [S. D.?] Schilling house Cor. 8th Street and east Water street for the sum of $4500.00 to be used for hospital purposes.”

A photograph of the rear of that house is among the 20 added this winter. The house still stands today.

Among the other new photographs is one of three young women who were injured during the Defeat of Jesse James Days in the 1960s. Writing on the back of the photograph indicates they were from a drum and bugle corps in St. Paul and were riding on the side of a fire truck when it tipped over while taking a sharp curve.

On the lighter side, there are a few images of the Northfield Hospital nursery in the 1950s-1970s, including their isolette equipment and a baby being weighed inside an isolette. (If the nurse has fully let go of the infant — which it’s not clear she has — it appears the infant weighed either one or 11 pounds!)