Speare Memorial Hospital: A Center for Health and Wellness Across the Spectrum of Life

Just two years after breaking ground on its $15 million renovation and expansion project, members of the Speare Memorial Hospital Board of Directors, state representatives, medical staff, employees, volunteers and community leaders celebrated the hospital’s grand reopening on November 5, 2006. The addition of 23,000 square feet of space has resulted in the reorganization and renovation of departments to make patient and visitor access and flow more efficient, increased parking, and updated infrastructure and state-of-the art technology to support patients’ health and wellness across the spectrum of life.

The objectives of this renovation/expansion were to provide much needed space in the growing departments—surgical services, oncology, laboratory, radiology, and the birthing suite— to relocate outpatient services to a central location, to provide our patients with the privacy they expect and deserve and to create a new front entrance to the hospital that provides easy access for patients and visitors. The renovation/expansion project created two distinct entrances to the hospital – Emergency Department, Walk-In, and Medical Office Building entrance is located off of Avery Street, and the new front entrance is located off Highland Street. Frequently used outpatient services are conveniently located off the lobby of the main entrance.Registration for outpatient services, such as laboratory, radiology, and oncology, and the new Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Clinic is just off the main lobby.

"Speare Memorial Hospital has been serving the health care needs of our residents and visitors for over 100 years,” says Michelle McEwen, President/CEO. “The expansion brings positive change to our community – providing state-of-the-art technology and expanded services, such as the new Women’s Imaging Center and the Cardiac Rehab program.” Outpatient services have been relocated to the front entrance providing easy access for patients. "Residents and visitors of the greater Plymouth have a virtually a brand new hospital to care for their medical needs, " adds McEwen.

Speare Memorial Hospital had its beginnings in 1892 with the creation of the Emily Balch Cottage Hospital, named for the mother of Catherine Holmes Balch of Holderness, one of the thirteen original organizers. It took $700 to open the doors of that first community hospital. The hospital was rebuilt in 1920 on a new location after a fire destroyed the original structure. In 1940, Mr. Sceva Speare, a prominent banker from Nashua, made a $50,000 challenge to the community to match a donation from him to build a new hospital. It took nine years to raise the needed funds, but on October 17, 1949, construction began at the hospital’s current location with a final cost of $523,400.

In 1985, the hospital underwent a major renovation adding 10,000 square feet and new equipment at a cost of $2.1 million. In addition to improvements to nearly every department, the hospital added an intensive care unit to help individuals recovering from critical illness. 1989 brought the addition of a new operating suite and space for storage and receiving were added. The Emergency Department and outpatient areas were renovated and expanded in 1996, through substantial support from the Rooke Family. The medical-surgical and obstetrics units were renovated in 1998.