Fitzhugh was just what the doctor ordered in Carroll's medical past

Fitzhugh was just what the doctor ordered in Carroll's medical past

EAGLE ARCHIVE By Kevin Dayhoff Posted on www.explorecarroll.com 1/25/09

On Jan. 25, 1935, Dr. Henry Maynadier Fitzhugh, a well-known local physician, died at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore.

Today, the name Fitzhugh is barely known to most Carroll County residents -- except for those who are aware the hill overlooking Westminster on the western end of town is colloquially known as "Fitzhugh's Hill." This is in the area we now know as Ridge Road (off Old New Windsor Road).

So why is a hill in Westminster dedicated to local doctor?

Well, in a tribute to Fitzhugh written for the Historical Society of Carroll County by historian Jay Graybeal, it's noted in the introduction that the good doctor was "a leading figure in volunteer work" here in Carroll.

"Dr. Fitzhugh served as the chairman of the Council for Defense for Carroll County, an organization that coordinated all local civilian war work activity," Graybeal writes. "After (World War I) he became a leader in the fields of education and medicine."

Fitzhugh's obituary reports that he "had been the president of the State Board of Education since 1920, a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners since 1910 and its secretary and treasurer since 1924.

"He was the president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty in 1930 and was a member of its council and one of its delegates to the American Medical Association at the time of his death.

"For the past year he had been the president of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States."

All noteworthy, but where does Fitzhugh's Hill come into play?

Long before Carroll Hospital Center was dedicated on Aug. 27, 1961 -- or even before its predecessor, the Carroll County War Memorial Medical Center, was dedicated on Nov. 11, 1952 -- folklore refers to two locations in Westminster that were considered for the location of a hospital.

Carroll Hospital Center officials Kevin Kelbly and Teresa Fletcher, speaking during an historical society luncheon just this past October, noted that there was talk of the need for a hospital as far back as the 1880s.

Records of the historical society, they said, also note that the local medical society spoke of the need for a hospital in 1916.

Then in 1917, three private citizens -- Dr. Henry M. Fitzhugh, Theodore Englar and Dr. Lewis K. Woodward Sr. -- offered to buy the Montour House on Main Street (in Westminster) and convert it into a hospital.

According to Kelbly, Fitzhugh "built his home and physician office ... on Ridge Road with the thought that this structure might some day become a Masonic Hospital."

Alas, the Fitzhugh home never did become a hospital, but the hill where he lived is a reminder of the man who, for a time, certainly "looked out" over the city's health. His obituary notes that "Dr. Fitzhugh's friends say of him he was one of the finest American examples of an old-fashioned family physician and friend."

Read more here: Fitzhugh was just what the doctor ordered in Carroll's medical past

http://explorecarroll.com/community/2150/fitzhugh-was-just-what-doctor-ordered-carrolls-medical-past/

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Kevin Dayhoff www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/