Medical Services
NAME OF SERVICE | TELEPHONE | ADDRESS | DISTANCE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concord Hospital – Laconia | 603-524-3211 | 80 Highland St, Laconia | 6.5 miles |
| Laconia Clinic | 603-524-5151 800-564-5150 | 724 N Main St, Laconia | 6.5 miles |
| Convenient MD Urgent Care | 603-737-0550 | 77 Daniel Webster Hwy, Belmont | 8.1 miles |
| ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care | 603-267-0656 | 96 Daniel Webster Hwy, Belmont | 8.2 miles |
| ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care | 603-556-4661 | 9 Old Lake Shore Road, Gilford | 4.5 miles |
| MedCheck Urgent Care | 603-279-6064 | 178 Daniel Webster Hwy, Meredith | 3.6 miles |
| Dental Expressions | 603-366-4400 | Alpenrose Plaza 36 Endicot St E | 0 miles |
HISTORY OF THE LACONIA HOSPITAL
Laconia Hospital, 1920’s
Until 1898 there was no hospital within the City of Laconia.
The first call for a Laconia hospital had come in the form of an 1891 editorial in the Laconia Democrat newspaper which stated that “We want a place where sick people can go to recover their health and be sure of getting careful nursing and good, wholesome sanitary surroundings. We want beds for those able to pay and free beds for those who cannot pay and are deserving of charity.”
In 1892, Laconia citizen Rhoda C. Ladd, in her will, pledged her entire estate, including her Court Street home, to the City for the purposes of building a hospital, but there still wasn’t enough funding to proceed.
When a railroad wreck occurred in the City on September 1, 1897, there was nowhere to bring the victims, other than a local hotel with “poorly lighted and ventilated rooms…” An editorial published in the local paper shortly after the wreck noted the “barbarous” conditions and concluded “the great necessity for a cottage hospital was never more manifest than at the present time…” With public opinion galvanized, funds were soon raised and the Laconia Cottage Hospital opened less than a year later, on July 18, 1898 at 118 Court Street. However, the Cottage Hospital had only eight beds and it soon became evident that a larger facility was needed.
In 1905, Laconia citizen Jeremiah S. Jewett sold his farm atop Jewett Hill to the City for a friendly price, and donated half of the purchase price towards construction of a new hospital. The new hospital, shown in the old postcard above, was built soon after, opening on October 18, 1908, at the top of Eliot Street.
(Information courtesy of the Laconia Historical Society)
In 1923, the original hospital was extended with a new annex of roughly the same size directly behind. A large new wing was added perpendicular to the annex in 1947. The original hospital was razed in June, 1970, to make way for today’s hospital in the same location, but both the annex and wing were kept and incorporated into the new structure. Major additions in 1985 and 2011 completed the hospital as it is today.
The Laconia Hospital circa 1950.
1955 aerial photo of the hospital complex
