Truesdale Hospital, historic hospital in Bristol County, United States

Truesdale Hospital is a building in Bristol County that began as a private clinic in 1905 and grew into a hospital facility. The structure underwent multiple expansions, with a south wing added in 1923 and a surgical wing in 1927, developing into a complex now exceeding 139,000 square feet and currently operating as a medical office building.

The hospital was founded in 1905 by Dr. Philemon E. Truesdale, a Canadian-born surgeon who championed collaborative medical practice. After Dr. Truesdale's death in 1945, the facility merged with Union Hospital in 1980 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The name honors Dr. Philemon E. Truesdale, a Canadian-born surgeon whose reputation shaped local trust in medical care. The nursing school opened here in 1912 trained many local residents, making the place a center for community education.

The original location was on Winter and Cherry Streets, but later moved to a building on Highland Avenue that still stands today. The building is easily identified by its Colonial Revival style with symmetrical features and large windows.

Dr. Truesdale pioneered the use of motion pictures to teach surgical techniques, an innovation that was groundbreaking in the late 1920s. One of his most notable surgeries was a 1935 successful repair of a congenital diaphragmatic hernia in a young girl who had traveled from Nebraska for his care.