Solandt Memorial Hospital
Routt County
The 1923 Solandt Memorial Hospital is significant for its long association as a public hospital for the town of Hayden and surrounding communities. Serving the community continuously from 1923 until 1964, the hospital served a vital need. When constructed and continuing through at least through the 1930s, the hospital was the largest and the only accredited hospital in northwestern Colorado as well as between Fort Collins and Salt Lake City. Additionally, it is architecturally important as a good example of a Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century American Movements style building as applied to a block-plan hospital design.
Solandt Memorial Hospital
The square columns, modest ornamentation, stately porch, arched accents and flat brick are a few of the features of the style exhibited by the hospital. Further, it displays the national architectural trend in hospital design of the post World War I era, which emphasized a highly functional and technologically advanced interior to cater to the patients’ health while minimizing exterior ornamentation. Prominent Laramie, Wyoming, architect Wilbur A. Hitchcock, designed the hospital. Hitchcock planned and designed other hospitals along with many institutional buildings during his career. It is the only remaining intact block-plan type hospital design known to exist in Colorado that has minimal alterations, never had any additions or expansions, and continues to serve as a medical facility.
Solandt Memorial Hospital in the snow.