Date in History: 20th Century
Hospital service in Fort Atkinson began in 1903 when Dr. Frank Brewer set up some surgical facilities and a few beds above a barbershop on South Main Street. Shortly thereafter, he added a wing on to his own house and ran the “Fort Atkinson Emergency Hospital” until 1910 when his own health started to fail.
Fort then remained without a hospital until 1921 when Dr. Peter Majerus and his wife Sophia opened a 10-bed facility in a home on Madison Avenue. Together the Majeruses ran this hospital until 1942 when the Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital Association was formed to take over for them. During the post-war period, the local community worked hard to raise enough money to build a brand new hospital instead of one in a converted private residence. They succeeded and in 1950 a new 62-bed hospital opened on East Sherman Avenue.
This historic document aired on the radio as an Historic Minute on 01/05/2004.