Troy Hospital

This house was built in 1905 by Oscar Larson, a prominent businessman.  When a young Dr. Charles Meyers arrived in Troy, he purchased the house to make it into a five-bed hospital from 1926 to July 12, 1942.  Dr. Meyers employed his sister, Julia Meyers to work as one of his first nurses.  Located on the first floor were his offices, surgery, a two-bed ward, a kitchen and bath.  The second floor contained a second two-bed ward, a single patient room and a room for a nurse.  Since this house had been a home before a hospital it had a kitchen, which was operated by Esther Sandquist and Ella Olson.  These ladies not only cooked for patients and nurses but stoked the Monarch Stove so that the nurses could sterilize the surgical instruments in the oven.

Dr. Meyers cared about the community of Troy a great deal.  Here is an excerpt from the History of Troy edited and compiled by Stella E. Johnson that tells an exceptional story of his character:

"Doc enjoyed taking the boys [his sons, Fritz and Jackie] fishing with him.  When Burl and Alice Trout were expecting a child he had refused the invitation of some of his friends to go fishing.  When they returned to show him their day's catch.  He said "I caught a bigger trout today."

Dr. Meyer's sons Fritz and Jackie are the two young men at the left end of the engine, Troy Fire Department and their engine, 1930s, Courtesy of the Latah County Historical Society, 15-06-011.

Several old-timers in Troy remember having their tonsils removed here.  Children and adults alike took place in what became known as "tonsil Tuesday," and it is said that on Tuesdays there was so many people getting their tonsils removed that "the whole town smelled of ether."

References:

Anderson, Dorothy, Troy City Historian, interview with Zachary Wnek, Moscow, ID, 06/09/2014.

Johnson, Stella E. History of Troy. (Troy, ID: Stella E. Johnson, 1992), 27.

Julin Suzanne, National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: Troy Hospital, July 25, 2010.