Picture it. Greenbelt. 1939. A young girl with inflamed tonsils. She is fortunate because Greenbelt has a hospital – the only hospital in Prince George’s County. The girl’s parents pay $4 for a semi-private room (the girl wants a private room; it’s only 50 cents more, she tells Mom and Dad) and $5 for a tonsillectomy. She gets to eat ice cream for a week.
Greenbelters are proactive in getting their health care needs met. Indeed, in 1938 the Greenbelt Health Association (GHA), a voluntary nonprofit cooperative organization, was started “for the purpose of securing the best kind of medical care for themselves and for their families on a budget plan which they could all afford.” Membership and the entrance fee of $5 and monthly dues ranging from $1 to $2.25 allowed a member to get a multitude of services including “a yearly physical examination; routine laboratory services; and special rates for surgery, treatment of fractures, etc.”
Shortly after the GHA began, a “hospital was authorized on the basis of a $5,000 surplus in the 1938 town budget.” The hospital, stated a newly arrived nurse, “fills a major need in the well-being of our community and should be a forerunner of many similar projects in other small communities which will have a direct bearing upon the welfare of our nation.”
A lack of funding and other issues threatened to close the hospital three years after it opened. The Farm Security Administration turned down a $23,000 item in the 1942 budget that would keep the hospital in operation. Suggestions were offered to finance the hospital, among them a proposal to directly tax residents $12 per year; however, a questionnaire issued to Greenbelters indicated that most residents “would prefer seeing some other part of the budget sacrificed in favor of the hospital, rather than pay a direct tax.” Dr. Joseph Silagy, medical director of GHA, said “it is very unfortunate that Farm Security Administration did not see fit to permit the Town Council to continue supporting the hospital.” The hospital was needed now more than ever, he stated, “in view of the number of additional residents expected here shortly, as well as the fact that Washington hospitals are turning away patients.”
The hospital closed its doors in January 1942. In March 1942, the GHA stated it would take over the hospital’s emergency equipment on a rental basis. The agreement would serve “as a means of preserving for Greenbelt at least some semblance of hospital equipment as a nucleus for meeting local health needs.”
The GHA closed in 1950 “due to the steadily declining membership, the worsening financial position of the organization, and the resignation of Dr. William Self, GHA’s physician.”
In 1957, GHA’s Dr. Wodak and Dr. William Weintraub became partners and practiced at the “then new apartments on Parkway, behind the Co-op Super Market. They remained there until 1964, when, along with Drs. Till Bergemann and Moody, they built the Professional Building at the Center Mall.” In later years, Dr. David Granite ran a thriving practice in that building for over 40 years. The Professional Building – renamed The Granite Building by the new owners – is home to a new health clinic which continues the tradition of providing health care in Greenbelt.
Picture it. Greenbelt. 2022. A tonsil-less woman with a life-long needle phobia gets blood drawn. Thanks to the care and compassion of the medical staff at the Old Greenbelt Family Health clinic, her experience is pain free. She gets to eat ice cream for a week.
This article is based on information reported in the Greenbelt Cooperator in 1938-1942, 1944, 1950 and 1952, and in News Reviews from 1965 and 1974. Digital versions of the papers are available at greenbeltnewsreview.com/archives and archive.org/details/greenbelt-news-review.