As St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek continues to grow with ongoing construction, the staff unveiled hidden treasures that have stood the test of time.
“I have never certainly celebrated anything that was 150 years, and then to be able to find out that there was a time capsule as part of this long history and tradition of this organization, we were very excited,” said St. Mark’s CEO Jeremy Bradshaw.
Bradshaw opened the time capsule that had been previously sealed in a wall. Among some of the items were newspaper clippings, documents, books, and jewelry — some dating back to the mid-1800s.
St. Mark's Hospital is also home to Utah's first nurses and the state's first nursing school. Today nurses make up more than half of all employees at St. Mark's and they have seen the community through everything from the Spanish Flu of 1918 to our recent COVID pandemic.
Chief Nursing Officer at St. Mark's Nicki Roderman was on hand for the time capsule opening and said she's excited to look closely at the items representing nurses.
"St. Mark's has evolved over the past 150 years, we provide more and more high-level services, so nurses have been trained and are capable of taking care of all those patients and we have over 500 here," she said.
Some of the items will be put into a museum that is part of the plans for a newly constructed tower. Others will go back into a time capsule with additional items to be stored away for an undetermined amount of time.
St. Mark's provided a list of items in the capsule:
- A program for the laying of the cornerstone at St. Mark’s Hospital dated July 31, 1892
- A hymnal, for The Protestant Episcopal Church, published in 1874
- A prayer book published in 1886
- A handwritten history of St. Mark’s Hospital, believed to be from the 1890s, that includes the names of members of the Board of Trustees at the time, architects, contractors and a superintendent for a hospital project
- Copies of the following newspapers dated Saturday, July 30, 1892:
- The Salt Lake Times newspaper
- Deseret Evening News
- A copy of The Salt Lake Tribune newspaper from Sunday morning, July 31, 1892
- A Saturday, July 23, 1892 copy of The Churchman, an Illustrated Weekly News-Magazine
- Volume VI of The Church Notes (Nevada and Utah) dated July 1892
- Several photographs of representatives of St. Mark’s Hospital including physicians, board of directors and members of the facility’s building committee ranging from 1889 – 1892
- The 1970 Candy Striper Roster for St. Mark’s Hospital volunteers
- A list of employees at St. Mark’s Hospital – organized by title and medical specialty, including but not limited to supervisors, administration, admitting, etc. – during June 1971
- According to the directory, as of June 6, 1971, there were 656 employees at St. Mark’s
- Photos and an article from the Thursday, May 13, 1971 issue of The Salt Lake Tribune, detailing the opening of the first cornerstone box before the items were combined
- A copy of the Deseret News on Monday, June 7, 1971; the title of the article on the front page is, “9 Utahns Killed In Air Collision;” the subheading reads, “DC9, F4 Crash: Total Of 50 Die,” detailing the Air West Jet Flight 706 – en route to Salt Lake City – which crashed east of Los Angeles after a midair collision with a Marine Corps jet
- A Sunrise Edition copy of The Salt Lake Tribune on June 7, 1971 detailing the above story
- The June 1971 St. Mark’s Hospital Auxiliary Membership List
- A 1971 United States Proof Set of coins packaged by U.S. Mint, including a half dollar, a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter
You can learn more about St. Mark's Hospital at MountainStar.com.
