A century ago, there were no hospitals in Sanford or Springvale. An effort was made on the eve of World War I by the Sanford Board of Trade to fund a hospital, but the funds raised were not sufficient to start construction.

Dr. H. Danforth Ross arrived in Sanford shortly after. With the help of George and Henrietta D. Goodall, Dr. Ross was able to open a small hospital in their former home on School Street (where the post office now stands). That was Sanford’s first hospital.

Henrietta D. Goodall took a keen interest in health care and after her death in 1923 her husband, George Goodall, and their daughter, Marion Marland, decided to build a real hospital in her memory. Preliminary work began on June Street in Sanford in 1926 and the foundation was laid in December 1927. Sadly, George died later that same month.

Mrs. Marland and her husband, William, saw the work through to completion. The hospital opened in August 1928. A Nurses’ Training School opened at the same time in a separate building on the hospital grounds.

A hospital exists in Sanford because the Goodall family built it. When more space was needed twenty years after the hospital opened, Marion Goodall Marland and her husband funded a new wing.

We applaud the merger of Goodall Hospital with the Southern Maine Medical Center, but see no reason for brushing aside the Goodall name. It is known throughout Southern Maine as Goodall Hospital. It exists only because the Goodalls built it.

We urge those responsible to refer to it in the future, not as the Sanford Campus, but as the Sanford Goodall Campus or the Goodall Sanford Campus.

This letter expresses the sentiments of and was approved by the board of directors of the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society and the Members of the Sanford Historical Committee at their joint meeting on Jan. 20, 2014.