The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother came to Oshkosh in 1891. In 1895, they built the first hospital, St. Mary's Hospital. It had 26 beds and four stories. It had private rooms, operating rooms, a dining room and a chapel. It cost $25,000 to build.
In 1895, the new St. Mary's hospital was big. The rooms were large and had many windows. In the basement it had a laundry room, kitchen, pantry, dining room and boiler room. The hospital is heated by water. The first floor had an office and large parlors. It also had a chapel with stained glass windows. Rooms for sick people were on the third floor. The nuns lived on the fourth floor.
Dr. M.E. Corbett built a hospital called Lakeside Sanitorium in 1912. It cost $75,000 to build. In 1918, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother bought Lakeside Hospital. They gave it a new name: Mercy Hospital.
In 1887, Dr, Corbett started the Lakeside Training School for Nurses. St. Mary's Hospital started a school for nurses in 1914. In 1931, students could live at the school.
In 1955, the hospital built a new addition. It cost $4 million. The new rooms were for operations, patients and office workers. The hospital had 260 rooms for patients.
The old St. Mary's Hospital became a home for old people. In 1956, it was remodeled. In 1961, it got a new name: Marion Home. In 1968, Mercy Hospital and Marion Home joined together, becoming Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Extended Care Center. Now the hospital had 500 beds for sick people.
In 1978, Mercy started building more buildings. These cost $14 million.
On October 8, 1997, Mercy began building a new hospital. It cost $50 million.
