Massena Hospital History Traditional Cache

Large camoflauged prescription bottle with trade items.

The first hospitals in Massena were in reality nursing homes operated for the convenienvence of local families who did not want to travel to  Ogdensburg to have a baby.The women who ran them were usually trained nurses working under the supervision of a local doctor.  My mother was born at home and delivered by my grandfather who dropped her.  My grandmothers second delivery was in one  of these nursing type home.  The baby was still born because she was administered too much ether.  For the birth of my aunts she traveled to Ogdensburg!  In 1943 a temporary barracks-type hospital was build on Maple Street with government money at a cost of $175,000.  I was born in that hospital in 1952. In 1953 my brother was born in the new hospital that had been built at a cost of $1,195,527,75.  Today (2016) the Town is deciding whether to continue to fund the hospital or for it to become a private hospital.  It is a very controversal topic in our town.