Melrose Area Hospital had its start in February 1916 when Drs. Pierre
Hilbert and Henry Goehrs asked Mary Pfeiffer, a registered nurse, to
open the house at 107 W Second St S, where she lived with several family
members, as a hospital. This facility had 5 patient rooms and an
operating room.
In 1921 Pfeiffer married Joseph Stundebeck, one of her patients, and
the hospital moved one door west, where it operated until 1925. Railroad
workers were frequent patients there.
In October 1925, Dr. Anthony Meyer, who had a hospital in his second
floor offices on Main Street purchased the large house built by Edwin
Clark, (now the site of the City Center, and converted it to a hospital.
The west wing was added in 1939.
