Southwestern Vermont Medical Center - History

History

SVMC opened in 1918 as Putnam Memorial Hospital. The hospital was built primarily with money donated by Henry W. Putnam and his son, Henry W. Putnam, Jr.

Henry W. Putnam, Sr., was wealthy businessman who started out selling bottled water during the California Gold Rush. His businesses included ventures as varied as canning jars and other household goods, hardware, real estate, and railroad investments. He settled in Bennington to be near his wife's family, where he owned a private company that provided a water supply to homes. In 1912, Putnam, Sr., gave his water company to Bennington. Among other provisions, he stipulated that the proceeds be used "to establish, equip, and maintain a public hospital to be located in the village of Bennington... into which hospital... persons requiring treatment... may be admitted and receive treatment at reasonable charge, and the destitute free of charge."

However, progress on building the hospital moved slowly. When Putnam died in 1915, the hospital corporators had roughly $12,000 in the bank and had chosen a construction site, but did not have the $100,000 estimated for the project. In the spring of 1916, Henry Putnam, Jr., donated $90,000 to spark the hospital construction, and the corporators broke ground the following August. The 30-bed hospital opened in June 1918.

Henry Putnam, Jr., continued to support the hospital financially until his death in 1938. He regularly financed expansions and new equipment and "personally made up annual hospital deficits ranging from $30,000 to $50,000." In his will, the younger Putnam left $3 million to his eponymous institution, which formed the nucleus of its charitable endowment.

In 1984, the hospital changed its name to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, for "bureaucratic reasons having to do with payment for Medicaid and Medicare patients and the protection of the endowment fund."