Overview

This 26-bed facility opened to the public in 11/1952. Fund-raising efforts for the facility dated back to the early days of World War II.

Building History

The process to gather funds to build the first small Roseville Community Hospital took about decade. Beginning just after America's entry into World War II, small-scale fund-raisers were staged in the community to raise money to build a community hospital. The Roseville/Granite Bay Press Tribune stated in 2009: "The Civilian Defense Council sponsored a dance in April 1943 that brought in $1,100 for the construction of a hospital. Other fundraisers included a victory garden fair and a harvest festival that also contributed funds for a community hospital. By 1945, dances had been held in the Masonic, Eagles and Odd Fellow Halls, all to benefit the future hospital for Roseville. In 1946, after $15,000 had been raised, the Roseville Chamber of Commerce approved the Community Service Council’s “Municipal Hospital Project,” and a tentative site was selected for the location. The city began researching the actual cost to build a hospital. When, in 1948, the possibility of obtaining state and federal funds to match the city’s cost share became available, Mayor Harold “Bizz” Johnson called for 700 voters to sign petitions to place a $150,000 bond issue on the municipal ballot. More than 700 residents signed the petition and the measure appeared on the April ballot. Roseville residents voted overwhelmingly for a hospital and passed the bond. However, for the next two years the city of Roseville tried unsuccessfully to become eligible for federal and state matching funds. That resulted in scaling down the original plans for a 50-bed facility as Roseville residents instead opted to build the hospital themselves without the funding. In January 1949, Frances Adamson donated 8 1/2 acres of land as the site for the proposed hospital, just east of Sunrise and Melrose avenues. A nonprofit corporation was established in March 1950 to administer a fundraising campaign to collect an additional $150,000 from residents. Ten local residents were the initial corporation members, each pledging $100 toward the new campaign to build a 26-bed hospital. Two years later construction began for a hospital with 26 acute care beds, an operating room and a labor and delivery room. Roseville Community Hospital, serving Placer and Sacramento counties, officially opened in November 1952. (See Roseville/Granite Bay Press Tribune, "Roseville Hospital grew with community," published 03/31/2009, accessed 10/10/2018.)

Sutter Health sold this hospital in 03/1998 to a group seeking to renovate the complex for education uses.

Alteration

The Roseville Community Hospital obtained $786,194 in Hill-Burton Federal funding for a 52-bed expansion on 02/20/1963. Cox-Liske Architects got the design contract for the addition, that opened on 07/01/1964. This federal program provided funding to public and private acute care general hospitals, special hospitals, nursing homes, public health and rehabilitation centers, to upgrade facilities and services as long as they did not discriminate because of race, national origin or creed. The bill (Titles VI and XVI of the Public Health Service Act of 1946), sponsored by Senators Harold Burton of OH and Lister Hill of AL, provided funding only to hospitals that could demonstrate economic viability, meaning many facilities in low-income contexts were denied funding.

PCAD id: 22450