Ground Broken and Work Begun

On July 7, 1961, an appropriate ground-breaking ceremony took place on a level tract of land which was formerly a part of the Kettering estate. The family home is secluded in the trees that crown the hill behind the hospital property. Work began on a three-hundred-bed hospital complete with all that money can buy, but made possible only by the demonstration of those things which money cannot buy. The building was structurally planned so as to add another floor with another one hundred beds at some future time, bringing the total to four hundred.SHM 422.2

One day while the building was in progress some friends of the Ketterings, members of the Harrison family, were visiting in Dayton. Mr. Harrison was a former associate of Charles F. Kettering. They were brought out to the partially completed plant and shown the building under construction. In conversation the Ketterings mentioned that the building was so constructed that another floor could eventually be added.SHM 422.3

The Harrisons were greatly impressed with the hospital, the detail of its planning, the completeness of its facilities, and the dignified elegance without ornate display everywhere evident. When they questioned why the additional floor was not put on now, they were told that it was a matter of finance. At once they offered to give $500,000 toward the fourth-floor project. Immediately the Ketterings agreed to match the amount. Eagerly Mrs. Kettering and her friends hastened to the office of George B. Nelson, the administrator, to break the good news that they now had another million dollars and to ask him to start work at once on the fourth floor. Thus even before the formal opening, the original one-hundred-bed hospital planned had grown to four hundred beds.SHM 423.1