The beginnings of a hospital facility in Rahway can be linked to the plans for the construction of a World War I military hospital (General Hospital No. 3) that was built in Colonia, not far from the Rahway border. Superintendent of the project, Doctor Frederick Albee, the famous orthopedic surgeon, was a resident of the area and felt there was also a need for a local civilian hospital that would serve a population who had to otherwise travel to Elizabeth or Perth Amboy to receive hospital services. To rectify the situation, Dr. Albee founded an association of thirteen physicians from Rahway, Woodbridge, Colonia, and Carteret for the purpose of locating a suitable site for a community hospital.
This newly formed Rahway Hospital Association soon found a threestory, Mansard style building located on the corner of Jaques Avenue and West Hazelwood Avenue which they planned to convert into a hospital. They succeeded in transforming the home into a modern twelve bed hospital consisting of two wards and three private rooms and included maternity, operating, sterilizing, reception and office rooms, a physicians’ dressing room and a kitchen. The building was even equipped with a private telephone. The house next door was purchased and made into living quarters for the competent corps of nurses who would staff the hospital. The formal opening, which was attended by over 1,000 citizens, was held on Saturday, June 24, 1916. An area newspaper article touted, “The institution is one of the most complete that any city in the country the size of Rahway can boast of.”
By 1926, the Rahway Hospital was treating more than 1,000 patients per year and it was obvious a larger, more modern facility was needed. To meet this end, a fundraising campaign was organized with a goal of raising $500,000. The drive was enthusiastically supported by all segments of the city and eventually raised $506,190. The main donors were Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Squier who gave $53,000 and also donated the seven plus acre parcel of land on Stone Street between Jefferson and Madison Avenues on which the structure would be built.
On the afternoon of July 27, 1928, Rahway Hospital President, Frank W. Kidd drove a gilt spade into the earth to break ground for the new building which officially opened a little more than a year later, on October 26, 1929. The new hospital contained over fifty beds and every amenity associated with hospitals of the period. The facility contained semi-private and ward accommodations, a complete operating department, maternity ward, x-ray department, laboratories, drug room, diet kitchen, storage, and reception rooms. The facility, officially called Rahway Memorial Hospital, would serve the community well, and besides the expected minor modifications and modernizations, it would be twenty-five years before major additions were made to the original structure.
In 1953 a building campaign was organized to raise funds for the construction, in stages, of a service building to house Civil Defense units, garages, workshops, storage, a dormitory for male employees and a lounge for female employees. Also planned for construction was a wing which would provide an emergency center, central sterile supply, a pharmacy, medical records, x-ray room, operating rooms, labor and delivery rooms and a recovery room. A third construction would offer a new lobby, offices, hospitality shop, pediatrics, private rooms, admitting office, day rooms and semi-private rooms. The five story project took four years to complete and cost $1.75 million. On November 30, 1958 a public viewing was held after which a reporter from the Elizabeth Daily Journal wrote, “a complete floor for men and another for women and another for children indicates the ability of the hospital to handle all types of cases.”
During the next three decades, major construction projects would be completed that allowed the hospital to continue to serve the community at the highest level. In 1963 a $1.5 million addition was undertaken that increased the bed complement to 221. A $5.5 million expansion took place ten years later further increasing the bed total to 311. In the 1980s, a new west wing was added as the result of a major “Expansion and Modernization” project.
In 2003 Rahway Hospital became officially affiliated with the Robert Wood Johnson Health System enabling the facility to broaden its scope and enlarge and expand its ability to provide even better care to an even greater number.
Today, the hospital still embodies the words spoken by former Governor A. Harry Moore at the opening ceremonies back in 1929 when he said, “This building really forms the soul of Rahway. It represents the very best that is in our lives, the will to do something for the good of others.”
(above) Rahway Hospital as it looked shortly after its opening in 1929.
