Key dates in the history of St. Joseph Medical Center:
1873: A two-story house at 13th and Walnut streets is turned into a 12-bed hospital. Reading’s first hospital accommodates six men and six women on different floors.
1882: Sisters of St. Francis go door-to-door to raise money for building a larger hospital. By 1884, the hospital can accommodate 75 patients.
1893: The hospital extends from Walnut Street to Elm Street. Capacity increases to 135 beds.
The Pennsylvania Department of State says St. Joseph’s designation as a Catholic hospital makes it a sectarian institution and thus ineligible for state funds.
1905: The hospital’s first school of nursing opens on the site of the original building at a cost of $60,000. The first class of nurses graduates in 1906.
1915: First man enrolled in St. Joseph’s School of Nursing.
1923: The hospital celebrates its 50th anniversary.
1944: St. Joseph becomes the first Berks County hospital to establish a blood bank.
1960: St. Joseph becomes the first hospital in the county to build an intensive-care unit.
1962: St. Joseph opens the first kosher kitchen ever in a non-Jewish hospital.
1972: The hospital opens its North Wing.
1997: St. Joseph acquires its current downtown campus at Sixth and Walnut streets in a merger with Community General Hospital.
2006: St. Joseph closes in Reading and opens a 212-bed hospital along Route 183 in Bern Township.
2010: St. Joseph starts an oncology network affiliation with Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. The two organizations broaden clinical relationship over the next five years.
January 2015: Penn State’s Board of Trustees votes to acquire St. Joseph Regional Health Network. The acquisition will be subject to state and federal regulatory review before moving ahead.
