For decades, the St. Joseph Hospital was an iconic Fairbanks sight near the edge of the Chena River.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Once upon a time, back when Fairbanks was just getting its start, the Gold Rush town found itself in need of a hospital. A Jesuit priest named Fr. Francis Monroe arrived in Fairbanks in 1904, and as soon as he finishedThe plans to build a Fairbanks hospital were nearly derailed a short time before construction began, when fires swept through the downtown area and nearly gutted several businesses.
St. Joseph’s Hospital was run by a series of Catholic religious sisters - originally by the Sisters of St. Anne and the Benedictine Sisters, and then in 1910 the Sisters of Providence took over. They were the main caretakers until the hospital closed 58 years later. In the years that followed, the St. Joseph Hospital underwent several rounds of expansion and renovation. In 1935 an addition provided expanded space for patients and offices, as well as an elevator and a coal-fired heating system. The next addition, in 1951, nearly doubled the size of the hospital. The second and third floor of the initial structure eventually lost their integrity and had to be torn down, but the first floor - the chapel and the sisters’ residential area - remained in use.
The flood of 1967, which drastically changed the landscape of downtown Fairbanks, sealed the fate of the St. Joseph Hospital.
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