Frustrated by Minneapolis licensing requirements and bureaucracy, Dr. Samuel Samuelson decided to build Victory Hospital on property he already owned in Robbinsdale. A year before the building’s completion Dr. Samuelson told the Robbinsdale Post newspaper that the initial proposal called for the erection of a 30-room hospital with the possibility of adding another story. The hospital and another project for 57 residences brought building totals in Robbinsdale to their highest level since the start of the Great Depression.
When Victory Hospital opened in January of 1940, the three story, marble faced building had five operating rooms and capacity for 70 beds. Victory was the first general purpose hospital built outside of the downtown areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Samuelson made the papers when a 250 pound electric motor fell on his leg. After hobbling into the operating room, he sewed up the cut with twenty stitches, taped a small fracture and grabbed a set of crutches to begin his rounds. No sense letting a little thing like that interrupt your work.
In 1954, Victory became North Memorial Hospital when it was reorganized as a private, non-profit. Three years later, North Memorial received accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. Over the next 50 years several expansion projects would take North Memorial from a 30 room facility to a 518 bed medical center. Today North Memorial Medical Center is a regional trauma center with eight helicopters, 120 ambulances, and 725 employees.
Photos Courtesy of Sunny Worel