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Hall Maternity Hospital, E. Main St., Waukon

I ran across this picture I took several years back, don’t remember the year.  It was called the Hall House & it was used as a maternity hospital years ago.  My 3 oldest siblings were born there ca: 1930’s.  I don’t know how long it was in use prior or after that time.  The house sustained fire damage & was scheduled for demolition so I made a trip to town to get the picture of it before it was torn down...... Jan Warner, May 2011

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The Hall Hospital was a private maternity hospital with 8 beds and 6 bassinets. In 1922 the hospital recorded 52 births.
~Adoption Agencies, Orphanages and Maternity Homes: An Historical Directory; Compiled by Reg Niles, 1981.

The hospital was in operation from ca1920 until the late 1940s or early 1950.

Catherine Donavon Hall, daughter of Daniel Donavon and Catherine Coughlin, was born in Iowa, July 16, 1865. She married Thomas Andrew Hall and they lived in Waukon. Thomas died September 14, 1922. The 1925 Iowa State census enumerated Catherine on E. Main St., Waukon, her occupation was performing 'personal services'. The 1930 Federal census enumerated Catherine (age 58) on E. Main St. She gave as her occupation 'Superintendent of the Maternity Hospital'. Catherine Hall died May 27, 1958 and is buried next to her husband in Mt. Olivet cemetery. ~Obituary

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Waukon, Ia., April 3 - The old Hall home, known to all as the "Hall Maternity Hospital," has been purchased from the heirs by Mrs. Thomas Hall of this city, who will continue to conduct a maternity hospital. The building, a spacious edifice, was erected about forty years ago by John Eddy, a pioneer Waukon resident, and purchased by Mrs. James Hall about twenty years ago. She continued to reside there up to the time of her death, about seven years ago, at which time Mrs. Thomas Hall opened up Waukon's first maternity hospital.

During this period of time, Mrs. Hall has looked after the care and welfare of three hundred infants, only one pair of twins being born, those of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Marsden of West Ridge, who are the parents of twin daughters.
~Dubuque Telegraph Herald and Times Journal, April 3, 1929

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Mrs. Catherine Hall is recovering from burns she received the past week when she was drenched with a boiler of hot suds, related the Waukon Democrat. It was wash day at the maternity hospital and Mrs. Hall had assisted in taking a boiler of hot suds from the stove to empty into a tub. The boiler slipped out of her hand and the boiling contents struck both knees, a foot and her left hand, inflicting deep and painful burns from which she has suffered intensely.
~Postville Herald, February 1931

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Waukon, Ia. - Mrs. Catherine Hall, who has operated the Hall Maternity Hospital here the past 16 years, has leased the business to Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Stults of Rochester, Minn. ~Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, March 14, 1938

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Waukon, Ia. - the former Hall Maternity Hospital, on East Main Street, has been leased by the city hospital trustees for use as a city hospital and will be known as the Waukon Emergency Hospital. It will be used until labor and material will be available for the construction of a new hospital, funds for which will be obtained through a bond issue recently voted in a municipal election. Mrs. Catherine Hall will be business manager and Mrs. George Hall will be superintendent of nurses. The hospital will be open to receive patients Thursday, May 4. ~Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 28, 1944

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Births in the Hall Maternity Hospital

The compiled list of births were found in newspaper announcements & obituaries and are researcher-contributed. If you can add to the list, email the Allamakee co. coordinator. Unless otherwise credited the births were added by S. Ferrall.

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