Monday, May 20, 2024

General Hospital

Edwardian era postcard of Cornwall General Hospital, opened in 1897 at the former residence of John Sandfield Macdonald, first Premier of Ontario. 
Cornwall Community Museum

I used to go after Cub scouts to the General where my mother worked. The General Hospital still had part of the Victorian building facing Second Street and a modern wing. The Victorian part had a lobby with a fountain in the middle that had large koi fish and an elevator that worked by a lever and manual closing doors. It was torn down and replaced by a modern section sometime in the 1970s. Mom was a volunteer in what she called the tuck shop, more of a British term for convenience store but there are still some places in Canada where it's used. It sold gifts, candy, magazines and comic books, which I liked reading.  She also worked in the psychiatric ward, which was scarier to visit. The people looked so sad. And one man from it came to knock on our door at home looking for mom.

 

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