The L.J. Cote block, built in 1904

Devastating fire on Main Street, 1908

Sutton Block to Gerrish Block

FIRE LOSS OF $400,000 Blaze at Berlin, N. H., Wipes Out Eight Business Buildings Berlin, N. H., Feb. 5.--With the thermometer at 20 degrees below zero, eight buildings in the heart of the business district of this city were destroyed last night, causing a loss roughly estimated at about $400,000. The fire was not declared under control until it had practically burned itself out after burning for five hours. The blaze started in the four-story brick Green block, the largest structure of its kind in the city. The Berlin fire department was utterly unable to cope with the conflagration. The one steamer of the department broke down at the very outset of the fire, and until help came from Portland and Lewiston Me., the only streams played upon the fast increasing conflagration were two feeble hydrant streams that dribbled on the fire at a distance of fifty feet with force not sufficient to break a pane of glass. Some sick tenants in the Green block had narrow escapes from their homes. The telephone exchange was burned out during the progress of the fire, the operators sticking to their posts until after the flames had attacked their structure. The blaze started in some excelsior in the basement of the E. A. Burbank company, furniture dealers. The fire was bounded on the north by the Gerrish block and on the south by the Sutton block. The Fitchburg Sentinel, Fitchburg, MA 5 Feb 1908

Clement Block, where the post office and Albert Theater
were built after this beautiful building burnt to the ground on January 4th, 1905.

 

BERLIN’S GREAT FIRE. New Hampshire Town Stricken, With Thermometer Below Zero. Berlin, N. H., Jan. 5.--A fire that was fought from 9:15 o’clock last night until after 2 o’clock this morning destroyed Clement’s Opera House block, the two Gagnon blocks, the Thorndike hotel, Brooks drug store, three storehouses and a stable and threatened the entire business section of the city. The total loss is placed at $150,000. During the fire many lodgers leaped from the fourth story of the Opera House block, sustaining in several instances broken limbs and other serious injuries. Mrs. Frank Wright, one of those who jumped, was picked up insensible and is in a dangerous condition, with a chance of her recovery. She missed the net which had been placed by the firemen and struck on the frozen ground. Her husband, Frank Wright, is perhaps fatally hurt. The fire originated in the Opera House block from an unknown cause and had a good start before it was discovered. Early in the fire the electric light wires were broken down, leaving the city in darkness save for the flames and adding to the confusion. The night was bitter cold, with the thermometer below zero. The Fitchburg Sentinel, Fitchburg, MA 5 Jan 1905

HISTORY OF ANDROSCOGGIN VALLEY HOSPITAL
Berlin’s first health care facility, the “Hopital St. Louis,” opened in 1905 under the direction of the Sisters of Charity with room for fifteen patients.
It was named for Reverend Louis M. LaPlante, pastor of St. Anne’s parish, who had pursued this project since his arrival in 1899. He saw the need for a place to care for the sick and injured, and donated a house and lot of land next to the church for the hospital. This house was formerly the Cascade House, a summer hotel built in 1877. It was sold by its builder, Henry F. Marston, to St. Anne’s Church to be used as a school. However, Fr. LaPlante, seeing a need for a building for the new hospital donated it to the Sisters.
Fr. LaPlante obtained initial approval from the Bishop of Manchester to have the hospital headed by the Sisters of Charity and then proceeded to St. Hyacinth, Quebec, to discuss it with the Sisters. They agreed to come to Berlin to manage the newly found hospital.
Two years later when Father LaPlante wanted to donate the hospital to the Sisters, they chose to raise $1,000 as a purchase price and presented it to him on October 9, 1907.
In 1909, St. Louis Hospital was incorporated under the laws of the State of New Hampshire and became a definite unit of the order of the Sisters of Charity.
In 1912 when the new St. Regis Academy was being built, the old wooden structure was cut in thirds. One section was added to the hospital and renovated. This provided room for up to 50 patients. Further renovations took place over the years and at the time of Berlin’s centennial celebration in 1929, the hospital accommodated 63 patients.
In 1927, the St. Louis Hospital School of Nursing was founded to meet the area’s needs for professional nurses. The school continued until 1972 when it closed due to a decline in clinical experience required by the students. Over 345 nurses had graduated from the school.
The American College of Surgeons first approved St. Louis Hospital in 1927. This approval was retained through 1953 when the ACS transferred its authority for approval to the Joint Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals. Since then the hospital has continued to be accredited by JCAH.
As the Berlin area continued to grow, its medical needs increased. In 1937, the Sisters of Charity made the decision to add a three story addition to the hospital at a cost of $80,000, increasing bed capacity to 98.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the final wing occurred in May 1954. The new building cost $1,000,000 and was designed to increase patient beds to 125. The mortgage funds were obtained by the Sisters. However, after construction began, a fund raising campaign was started to raise $36,500 for equipment and furnishings and over $55,000 in pledges was brought in. The new wing was completed and dedicated in the summer of 1955 at special ceremonies marking the hospital’s fiftieth anniversary.
On July 1, 1971, the ownership and administrative control of the hospital was transferred from the Sisters of Charity to a community-based nonprofit corporation. Thus, St. Louis Hospital became the Androscoggin Valley Hospital. The need to renovate the aging facility or to totally replace it was evident at that time. Four years later, the plans for an entirely new hospital facility to be located a mile and a half north of the present hospital were approved. Spurred by the most successful fund raising effort ever undertaken in the Berlin area bringing in $1,200,000 in pledges, groundbreaking took place on September 11, 1976. Construction continued over the next two years and was completed in November, 1978.
During this period of construction, hospital officials participated on a rehabilitation-reuse committee to determine alternative usages for the old hospital and the St. Regis Academy building. They view the recommendation to provide 102 units of various types of subsidized housing for the elderly as an exciting and positive development, but funding is still pending. This would fill an important need for elderly housing within the community.
This potential project could add years of service to the old AVH, as the community approaches a new era in modern health care in the new AVH.
Dedication for the new AVH took place on November 26, 1978, with ceremonies attended by some 2,000 persons. A keynote speaker from the Center for Small and Rural Hospitals for the American Hospital Association said AVH had adopted “some of the most advanced concepts in health care in the nation.”
The modem 84 bed facility opened to patients on December 16, 1978. Much advance planning was considered to make the new building flexible and expandable in all directions. This gives assurance to the community that the new AVH need not suffer a future crisis from inability to change with the times.
Richard H. Greene, President, in his 1979 annual report message, said “prime attention will continue to be devoted to upgrading our inpatient services but additional kinds of patient care services must be considered to meet the changing needs of our community.” He said increasing planning will concern the development of outpatient as well as rehabilitative types of services.
AVH also looks ahead to taking a leadership role in assisting and coordinating the development of health education and promotion within the community. This action can assist in the general improvement of community health levels, while contributing to health care cost reductions.