Rockville Hospital At 100: A 'Quintessential Community Hospital'

VERNON, CT — As Rockville General Hospital celebrated its 100th anniversary Monday, Eastern Connecticut Health Network President and CEO Deborah Weymouth marveled at two examples of what had made the institution so "special."

One was longtime Vernon resident Carl Schaefer.

Schaefer was the second baby born at RGH's current location on Union Street.

"Yes on the third floor after service expanded (to include maternity)," Schaefer said.

That was in February 1946, a quarter-century after the hospital opened and a year after it took up residence in the former mansion that still remains a testament to the Victorian-era textile days.

It was also a huge advancement from Nov. 1, 1921 — when the hospital opened. In a commemorative book handed out at Monday's ceremonies, Opening Day nurse Gladdys Cratty was quoted as saying there were 4 nurses in the hallways and there was no elevator or delivery room.

Emma Smith, who began a 50-year career at RGH in 1925, said in the book that she would take one end of a stretcher and a doctor the other while heading up and down the stairwells with patients.

Schafer said one good evolution was the transition to a full-service hospital after the move.

Weymouth also marveled about an anecdote by Vernon Mayor Daniel Champagne. He and his wife Karen met while working at RGH. Dan was in the stockroom and Karen in the cafe.

"I went to the cafeteria and Karen served me a tuna sandwich," Champagne said. "We've now been married for 30 years."

Rockville High School freshman Elyjah Abernathy sang the National Anthem to open the celebration to connect the new and the historic.

Weymouth said the stories speak for the hospital's mission.

"They tell us that this is the quintessential community hospital," she said. "Community connections ... they are what it's all about."

In a 1995 interview, area resident Rudolph Luginbuhl, one of 11 siblings who made frequent trips to RGH from the 1940s through the 1950s who later chaired the hospital's board, recalled all the bumps, bruises, broken arms and legs and cow gores in his family, but also the care he received when spending two months there after falling three stories while hanging tobacco at 14.

Said Champagne, "Countless Vernon families have come to our community hospital in their times of need for professional, compassionate care. For the past 100 years, Rockville General Hospital has been our hospital. And as the pandemic eases, we look forward to the restoration of inpatient care. I am confident that for the next 100 years, our hospital will remain a vibrant and essential part of our community."

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