About this collection:

➤ The Ohio Valley Medical Center began as City Hospital on January 1, 1890, following an initiative by Wheeling women’s groups led by the women of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. City Hospital took quarters in the former Wheeling Female Seminary and opened to patients in 1892. On January 14, 1914, the East Building of the present hospital complex was opened on the old seminary site, and the hospital officially became Ohio Valley General Hospital. City Hospital Training School for Nurses opened in conjunction with the hospital in 1892 and was the first nursing school in West Virginia. The school of nursing closed in 1988.

On January 26, 1973, the hospital’s board of trustees voted to change the name to Ohio Valley Medical Center. In April 1976, the hospital embarked on the most extensive building program of its history, a new eight-story patient tower designed to accommodate 200 replacement beds previously located in the East Building. On April 27, 1980, this new West Building opened. Ohio Valley Medical Center was incorporated as part of the Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation in 1982. The OVHSE was also the parent company of the East Ohio Regional Hospital. Until 2004 the hospital operated Peterson Rehabilitation Hospital in the Woodsdale section of Wheeling. In 2017, Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation was purchased by the Alecto Corporation, and in 2019 the hospital officially closed.

The collection contains the bound minutes of the Hospital Board of Trustees beginning in 1914 and continuing until 2017. In addition to the main hospital board minutes, the collection also contains the minutes of the Medical and Dental Staff and the Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation (beginning in 1982).

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