This 150th anniversary year of the Royal Columbian Hospital has been interesting.
The year so far has featured a wide variety of events related to the institution, from everyday hospital functions to celebrations of various aspects of the story of a century and a half of providing care to the community, the colony and the province.
There are a number of aspects of that history that seem to draw much attention.
One of the favourites is the siting of the original hospital at Fourth Street at Agnes Street. The accounts of this building on a muddy hillside are intriguing as people try to imagine what life was like in that 1862 town that saw the medical facility appear on one of its streets.
There is always great interest as to what went on "medically" within its walls.
Another attention getter is the Royal Engineers' medical supplies chest that is in the collection of the New Westminster Museum and Archives.
This chest, the size of a large trunk and clearly marked on top as being from the Columbia Detachment (of Royal Engineers), has always drawn interest as people enjoy seeing this artifact from the very beginning of New Westminster.
Many people find it curious to note that fundraising for the operation of the hospital was critically important at the beginning, throughout its history, and still is today.
We now have the RCH Foundation and other groups that strive on a continual basis to gather funds.
While CKNW's Donation Day stands out, in the past that might have been a sternwheeler cruise with the city band and a dinner or a lecture series from a local citizen who had visited somewhere mysterious on the other side of the globe.
Another story elicits many questions regarding the potential outcome of something that was considered in the early 1900s - moving RCH from Sapperton to another location in the city.
While this obviously did not happen, the "what if?" of having the hospital in Queen's Park or even the Queen's Park neighbourhood is very thought provoking.
For many people, the earliest RCH they remember is the image of the "1912" structure.
This dramatic and powerful facade dominated the block in Sapperton for many decades.
This structure was, to many citizens, "the" hospital, the place of births, deaths and treatments of all types and complexities. Sapperton had some major landmark structures and the 1912 version of the hospital was one of them.
If you are interested in this story and would like to see images from the history of Royal Columbian Hospital, plan to come along to the Historical Society evening on Wednesday, Oct. 17, starting at 7: 30 p.m. in the New Westminster Public Library auditorium.
Dale Miller, who has been a major source of RCH historical information during the anniversary year as well as writing the blog "RCH150," will be there with lots of stories.
