SANFORD — Local history buffs are asking Southern Maine Health Care to refer to the Sanford Medical Center with the facility’s roots in mind.
When Goodall Hospital and Southern Maine Medical Center merged to become Southern Maine Health Care Jan. 1, it meant there were two campuses with the same moniker. So while signs calls them both Southern Maine Health Care, the facilities themselves are referred to as Biddeford Medical Center and Sanford Medical Center.
The Sanford Historical Society and Sanford Historical Committee, following their joint meeting Jan. 20, are asking that the Goodall family, which built the facility, be reflected in references to the Sanford campus. Historical society president Harland Eastman said the society and committee applauds the merger of the two facilities, but pointed out the Sanford campus exists only because the Goodall family built it back in the 1920s.
“We urge those responsible to refer to it in the future, not as the Sanford Campus, but as the Sanford Goodall Campus or the Goodall Sanford Campus,” he said.
Eastman related the Sanford hospital’s history: Sanford had no hospital until around 1917, when Dr. Danforth Ross arrived, and with the help of George and Henrietta D. Goodall, was able to open a small hospital in their former home on School Street. Henrietta Goodall took a keen interest in health care and after her death in 1923, her husband George, a son of textile baron Thomas Goodall, and their daughter, Marion Marland, decided to build a real hospital in her memory ”“ and so the Henrietta M. Goodall Hospital opened in 1928.
The request to carry on the Goodall name has made its way through social media, through the efforts of Krista Ellis Argiropolis, who was born and raised in Sanford; her parents ran the former Mountain View Infirmary on Hanson’s Ridge Road at one time. She now lives in Alton Bay, N.H., but remains connected to her hometown and maintains a couple of Sanford-themed Facebook pages. She saw Eastman’s letter to the editor in a local newspaper and created an online petition.
“It seemed like an opportunity to show support for the Historical Society as well as the Goodall name,” she said.
Argiropolis said she believes Sanford Goodall Campus or Goodall Sanford Campus would be positive for both the Sanford and Biddeford facilities.
“If anything, it will be a message of community pride, and it will come from a group with no financial interest in this situation whatsoever,” Argiropolis said.
As of this morning, the petition had 124 signatures; the goal is 1,000.
Eastman didn’t know about the petition until someone mentioned it to him while he was out running errands, but said he is pleased that the word is spreading.
Southern Maine Health Care Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Patsy Aprile said the health care facility wants to be respectful of the Goodall name, and that is why there’s a new look for the campus’ medical office building, which was constructed a few years ago. The sign was installed within the last several days and proclaims the structure the Goodall Medical Office Building. She said Southern Maine Health Care will look to the historical society when it creates a display on the ground floor of the office building.
“We really would love the historical society’s input into our historical display,” she said.
She said that with the merger, the two facilities came together as equal partners, even though the Sanford hospital was the smaller of the two. Aprile pointed out that with the merger, both facilities underwent a name change ”“ Southern Maine Medical Center to Biddeford Medical Center and Goodall Hospital to Sanford Medical Center.
The facilities sought community input in 15 forums spread over several locations, Aprile noted. She said the Goodall name question did come up, and that people seemed happy when hospital officials explained how the name would be memorialized on the medical office building and in an historical display.
“We got good feedback,” she said.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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