If you`re going to build a hospital, you might as well build it close to those who may need it. That was some clear thinking from grocery magnate Theodore Pringle Loblaw, commonly referred to by his initials T.P., when his donations became the foundation for Alliston`s new hospital, now Stevenson Memorial Hospital, back in 1928.

Although he was a philanthropist with the best interest of the community in mind, he was also pragmatic when it came to establishing a centre where people could be treated for illness or injury.

Back in the day when his summer home just north of Alliston became somewhat of a hotspot for fun times, T.P. entertained some rather important people who enjoyed playing tennis, golf, and socializing in a country setting. Some of the fun included hunting parties that would go out to the nearby woods to deliver some lead to the local small game, as well as some fairly dangerous activities for the time, such as horseback riding.

This got T.P thinking - considering firearms are inherently dangerous, if one of his guests had the misfortune of being on the wrong end of an errant shot, or took a rough tumble from a horse, the nearest hospital in Toronto was a long way away when travelling along dirt roads in a Ford Model A sedan.

He may have already been thinking of using his wealth for good measure in his home town, but the thought of a VIP expiring due to a lengthy ride to the big city convinced him that there was no better time than the present to build a hospital that was close to home.

It didn`t take long to get the ball rolling.

With the initial donation of “over $100,000” and smaller sums from anonymous donors, Stevenson Memorial Hospital was officially opened on June 30, 1928.

Named in honour of Loblaw's grandparents William and Elizabeth Stevenson who raised him after the death of his own parents, the original hospital building lasted for 36 years and saw the addition of a three storey nurses’ residence in 1938.

By 1936, the nurses were given a $5 raise to bring their monthly salary to $60. That`s $720 per year when you tally it all up - the average national wage at the time was $1,710. In 1980, the nurses residence evolved to became the Mary McGill Mental Health Centre and today, also houses the hospital`s administrative staff.

Plans for a new hospital to replace the aging original wood structure were underway by the late 1950s. The new hospital building officially opened on June 18, 1964 at a cost of $1,509,800

Forty-seven years later, the existing hospital building has gone through a lot of changes and upgrades, but like any public building that has a twenty-four hour operating cycle, the hospital is coming to the end of its days.

The cost of building a new hospital will soon, if not already, be financially more efficient than maintaining and renovating the current deteriorating building.

“We are in the planning stages. We have looked at preliminary designs for a new hospital on this site,” says Myles Keeble, Stevenson`s Chief Financial Officer. “We are looking at a hospital about three times the size of the current facility.”

The hope is to have a new hospital built within ten years.

“Patient volumes are increasing,” Keeble explains, adding that “the size of the community as well as increased demand will necessitate a larger hospital in the near future.  In the spirit of T.P. Loblaw, we are committed to providing excellent care close to home.”

The wheels turn slowly when it comes to such projects however, but the groundwork is already being completed with an application for a planning grant from the Ministry of Health being put into place. The cost to build a new facility is currently estimated at $150 million.

As for Loblaw`s original fears of a long trip to the hospital, it turns out he was right. Loblaw himself is listed in the hospital records as the sixteenth patient admitted to the brand new hospital in 1928, when he suffered a broken leg after falling from a horse on his property north of town and spent 63 days recuperating in the very hospital that he built.