Information in this article was gathered and collected by the Bonnyville Museum’s supervisor and museum technician Danna Kamaleddine. Facts about the history of the Duclos Hospital were gathered from materials archived at the Bonnyville Museum and information published in the book Echos of the Past - History of Bonnyville and District. These items can be viewed at the Bonnyville Museum during its regular hours of operation.
BONNYVILLE – The original Duclos Hospital opened in 1917 under the Women's Missionary Society (W.M.S.) of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. It was a small two-storey framed house.
Before it received the name of Duclos Hospital, it was originally called Bonnyville General Hospital before being changed that same year to Katherine H. Prittie (K.H.P.) Hospital of Bonnyville. The name change was the result of Prittie’s astounding generosity.
In 1925, plans were made for a new hospital to be built on a parcel of land purchased by Mr. Willie Paquette. This hospital was located on the present site where the third Duclos Hospital would eventually be constructed, later catching fire and being torn down on June 1, 2023.
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By 1926, the two-storey, 20-bed hospital was opened.
Eventually another two-story building was built south of the hospital on the same parcel of land in 1932. The building became the nurse's residence.
Unfortunately, in 1934 an electrical panel explosion took place in the basement of the hospital. While no one was injured, it had left significant damage to the building. Immediately after the explosion, the rebuilding process started.
While the new hospital was under construction, the nurse's residence was used as the hospital for the time being.
In 1935, the hospital that eventually would become disused and turned into a bed and breakfast in the 1990s, was fully rebuilt.
By 1962, the Women's Missionary Society withdrew its support for the mission in Bonnyville in order to transfer its endeavours to less fortunate places that were calling for help. At that time, the hospital was officially closed.
Many people felt that the institution's medical work should not come to an end, and under the Alberta Friendly Societies Act, the community organized the Duclos Hospital Society.
The society then bought the land that the hospital stood on and the doctor's house and office as well.
They elected their own personal hospital board that same year. The institution re-opened its doors under the name Duclos Hospital, but this time as a non-Church organization.
Reverend Duclos had come to Bonnyville in 1916 to help French Canadian families in the area establish a French Presbyterian Church. At the time, Rev. Duclos had three missions: to build a church, to build a school, and to build a hospital. The Reverend saw to the completion of all his missions and his namesake was honoured once again by the Duclos Hospital Society.
Miss Hilda Canavan gave the longest service as a nurse at the hospital from 1929-1946. The Matron who served Duclos Hospital the longest was Miss Henrietta Shipley, 1918-1942.
Fun Fact: During the summer of 1990, the original Bonnyville Museum was located at the Duclos site before moving to its current location in 1991.
The Bonnyville & District Museum Society used the old hospital location as a workplace and for storage of artifacts until the current Museum was built. One of the museum's board members, Byron Johnson, worked on that site and is still a current board member today.
The local constituency’s Member of Parliament, Deborah Grey (1989-2004), was at the museum's ribbon cutting back in 1991 and gave a speech during the event.
