Sonoma Valley Hospital celebration; 90 years in photos

Sonoma Valley Hospital celebrates its long history on Saturday, June 11 with tours, lunch, live music with The Cork Pullers and a street party with fun activities for children. Free. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fourth St. W. at Andrieux, Sonoma. Svh.org.

The Sonoma Valley Health Care District was formally created in March of 1946, following a vote by community residents who decided that the Sonoma Valley needed a modern Hospital operated under local control. Such districts came into being in California in response to a shortage of hospital beds in the state following World War II.

The Sonoma Valley Hospital itself, still gleaming from a $45 million overhaul completed in 2013, began far more humbly: in 1924, local doctors persuaded a nurse and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. George Burns (or “Aunty Jo,” as she was known), to put a couple beds in their home on Burndale Road, for maternity cases. Known as Burndale Hospital (above), the facility served the community until 1945.

Then when a local citizens group leased and remodeled the two-story building (above) that is now Bartholomew Park Winery, owned by Frank Bartholomew who also owned Buena Vista Winery. This 21-bed hospital opened in 1945 and served the Valley until 1957.

In the early 1950s, a larger facility was proposed for a downtown parcel donated by August and Sylvia Sebastiani. The Andrieux Street site is the current location. Construction began in 1955 after voters passed a bond issue.

It opened in January 1957.

The facility has undergone expansion and remodeling several time along the way, capped by the recent seismic and facility upgrade. A new wing was added, housing a modern Emergency Department and Surgery Center.