THE PARKERSBURG CITY HOSPITAL/CAMDEN CLARK

Parkersburg's 40-bed City Hospital (seen here around 1906) was opened in 1898 at 508 Thirteenth Street, opposite St. Mary's Avenue. The building later became the St. Raphael's Convent for the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus when the hospital was moved to the large Johnson Newlon Camden home at Eighth and Ann Streets after Camden's death in 1909 (below). It later became Camden-Clark Hospital. The old building on Thirteenth, which extended half a block behind the eastside houses in the 1200 block of Quincy Street, was torn down to make way for the Greenbrier Apartments in the late 1960s.

Senator J.N. Camden's home at 717 Ann, seen here around 1906,
later became the Parkersburg City Hospital.

The Camden house (courtesy of Roger Mackey)

The Camden mansion turned Parkersburg City Hospital, early 1900s.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Graham.)

Camden Clark Memorial Hospital was dedicated in Parkersburg on April 16, 1920. Its roots date back to the old City Hospital, a 40-bed facility that opened in 1898 on 13th Street. It also operated a nursing school. In 1920, the hospital moved to the Camden mansion on Garfield Avenue. That had been the home of former U.S. Senator and industrialist Johnson Camden and his wife, Anne. After her death in 1918, the family honored her by giving the mansion to the city. With a donation and bequest from Dr. Andrew Clark, the city added a wing and adapted the mansion into Camden- In the 1970s, the hospital was expanded with a new kitchen, mechanical wing, surgery suite, and a North Wing Tower, featuring a radiology department, coronary care unit, emergency department, laboratory, and pharmacy. Later additions included a medical office building, outpatient physical therapy building, and catheterization lab. In 2011, Camden-Clark merged with St. Joseph's Hospital to become Camden Clark Medical Center, an affiliate of the West Virginia United Health Center.

Patients at Camden Clark received this card in 1925.

The new hospital in the Johnson Newlon Camden home at Eighth and Ann in the 'Teens.
Camden-Clark was built on this spot in the 1930s.

Camden-Clark was underwater during the 1937 flood.

An addition to Camden Clark Hospital is under construction. In the left foreground is
the intersection of Eighth Street (out of frame), Murdoch Avenue, and Ann Street.
(Photo courtesy of Roger Mackey.)

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