Last updated: January 30, 2026
Place
McKendree Miner's Hospital
Quick Facts
Location:
Thurmond, WV
Significance:
The McKendree Miner’s Hospital was one of three hospitals built in the coalfields of West Virginia to provide free medical care to coal miners and railroad workers.
Amenities
9 listed
Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Information - Maps Available, Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board, Parking - Auto, Restroom, Scenic View/Photo Spot
Note: This tour stop is located at Thurmond as there is very little that remains of the McKendree Hospital. What does exist is located off the McKendree Road, which is not maintained and may be impassible.
African American Heritage Driving Tour Stop 10: McKendree Miner's Hospital
If using the NPS app, to listen to the audio narrative, press the green button below or read the audio narrative text below.
Audio Narrative
Written by: Richard Altare
Narrated by: Adrienne Jenkins and Brucella Jordan (quote)
In the early days of the railroad, coal mining, and timber industries, thousands of men poured into West Virginia seeking jobs. The Italians, Irish, African Americans and others who filled these jobs were subjected to hard physical labor, and dangerous work conditions. Work-related injuries and even death were hazards of the job. Injuries occurred almost-daily. Medical care and services were sparse or unavailable in most railroad towns and coal camps. Injured workers had to depend on home remedies. Some injuries led to disabilities, resulting in the worker losing his job and his family being evicted from their company-owned house.
In 1899, the State of West Virginia provided and improved medical care for both the working man and the general public. The State Legislature passed an act establishing three “miner’s” hospitals within the state. Originally called Miner’s Hospitals One, Two, and Three, they eventually took the name of the town where they were located. Miner’s Hospital # 1 was built in the Town of Welch in the southern coal fields. Hospital # 2 was constructed in the heart of the New River Coal Field. It became known as the McKendree Miner’s Hospital. Hospital # 3 served the northern coal fields and was located in Fairmont, WV.
The McKendree Miner’s Hospital opened in 1901. It was built on land donated by New River coal operator Colonel Joseph Beury. The hospital provided free medical treatment for coal miners and railroad workers. All other patients were charged $1.59 a day for medical treatment. A Whites-only nurse training program was established in 1901 to provide better qualified nursing staff at the hospitals. Seemingly isolated deep in the New River Gorge, the hospital was actually very accessible to people living throughout the region. The hospital was linked to each town and community by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and its branch lines. The railroad was the “ambulance” service for workers and their families. A former nurse trainee, Thelma Louise Cashion, reflects back on her time working at the hospital…
“The hospital was almost always full of patients. Patients were divided into different wards. There were large White and Black male wards and smaller White and Black female wards. There were integrated private rooms available for the women and their babies who were delivered there. Most of the patients by far were men with very serious and traumatic injuries including cuts and crushed limbs requiring amputations and burns. In 1933, the hospital was inundated with patients during a typhoid fever epidemic.”
McKendree Hospital closed as a medical facility in the 1940s due to its remote location and the closure of mines within the gorge. However, it continued to operate as a segregated nursing home for elderly Black men and women. A decade later, the doors closed for good. The other two “miners” hospitals remained opened until the mid-1980s.
Over the years, the McKendree Hospital was slowly demolished, its bricks and building materials removed for reuse. Today, the only access to the hospital site is along a very rugged and little-maintained gravel road and hike through the forest. Like most of the coal towns of the once booming New River coal fields, the McKendree Hospital has been reclaimed by the nature.
Additional Information
African American workers were vital to the railroad and mining industries of West Virginia. The state’s economic base and identity was built on and around coal mining, and a third of those miners were black. When the C&O Railway opened the state for the mining and timber industries, the sparse rural medical services were quickly overwhelmed. With the establishment of West Virginia’s three state “miners” hospitals in 1891, healthcare for all coal miners and railroad workers became available.
Miner’s hospitals 1, 2 & 3 would be named for the towns where they were located; #1 the southern coalfields in Welch, #2 at the small mining town of McKendree in the heart of the New River Gorge, and #3 in the northern coalfields at Fairmont. McKendree Miners Hospital provided free medical care for coal miners and railroad workers, and charged $1.59 per day
for all other patients. The patients were divided into segregated wards; there were larger wards for males, smaller wards for females, and private rooms available only to pregnant women for deliveries. A segregated whites only two-year nurses’ training program was established at the hospital in 1910.
For the full story go to: The McKendree Miner's Hospital; McKendree, WV.
Other nearby places of interest:
Thurmond
Thurmond Black Church
Driving Directions:
Note: Tour stop is at Thurmond
Physical Address: Hwy 25/2, Thurmond, WV 25936
GPS Coordinates: N37.957095 -W81.078851
From Beckley, WV: Take Highway 19 north to the exit for Glen Jean. Turn right at the stop light then left on to Highway 16/61 (there is an Exxon Station at this exit). Travel to the first crossroads and turn right into Glen Jean. Cross a small bridge and turn left following the brown signs to Thurmond (Highway 25). Travel 7 miles and cross the bridge over the New River. Tour Stop #10 and parking is at the Thurmond Depot.
From Fayetteville, WV: Take Highway 19 south to the exit for Greentown. Turn left at the exit onto Highway 16/61. Travel 2 miles to the crossroads at Glen Jean and turn left into Glen Jean. Cross a small bridge and turn left following the brown signs to Thurmond (Highway 25). Travel 7 miles and cross the bridge over the New River. Tour Stop #10 and parking is at the Thurmond Depot.
Directions to next Tour Stop:
DuBois School
Physical Address: 110 High School Drive, Mount Hope, WV 25880
GPS Coordinates: N37.898051 -W81.157067
From Thurmond, return to Glen Jean and turn left onto Highway 16 south. Travel 2.2 miles to Mount Hope and turn right onto Virginia Street. Travel .1 of a mile and turn right onto High School Drive. Park at the gate and walk up to Tour Stop #11 at the old Mount Hope High School.
The requested video is no longer available.