{{Use mdy dates, date=January 2025
''See article Sheltering Arms Hospital for other hospitals with the name located in
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...
and
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
.''
Sheltering Arms Hospital was located at Hansford in
Kanawha County, West Virginia
Kanawha County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital and most ...
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis Potter Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Rich ...
along Paint Creek. It was open from 1888 until 1923. The nursing school was added in 1902.
The
Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia
The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (TEC). It encompasses all 55 counties of West Virginia. The diocese has 66 congregations, including 38 parishes, 26 missions, and 2 other c ...
opened the hospital in 1888, under the leadership of its first bishop, the Rt. Rev. George W. Peterkin. At the time, there was only one other hospital in the state; his sister
Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin
Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin (also known as Rebecca Dulany Peterkin; September 24, 1847 – July 26, 1891) was an American philanthropist who founded the first circle of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons in Virginia, and then t ...
founded a similar hospital in Richmond. Among the West Virginia organizers were
William Nelson Page
William Nelson Page (January 6, 1854 – March 7, 1932) was an American civil engineer and industrialist. He was active in the Virginias following the U.S. Civil War. Page was widely known as a metallurgy, metallurgical expert by other indust ...
, a civil and mining engineer and
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
mine manager of
Ansted
The Ansted was an American automobile; successor to the Lexington and the Ansted-Lexington, it was manufactured from 1926 to 1927. Following the sale of the Lexington plant in Connersville, Indiana
Connersville is a city in Fayette Coun ...
Kanawha County
Kanawha County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 180,745, making it West Virginia's most populous county. The county seat is Charleston, which is also the state capital and most po ...
.
Sheltering Arms Hospital was supported by small payroll deductions, initially 10 cents a month, from coal miners and railroad workers. When a new building was opened in 1908, it contained 100 beds, and Sheltering Arms could care for 800 patients. The hospital had its own nursing school. Under hospital policy, "Persons with contagious diseases, or those caused by immoral habits, not received."
The Sheltering Arms Hospital in West Virginia closed in 1923 after its services were replaced by county hospitals.
Dr. Otis K. Rice donated papers from the hospital to the West Virginia state archives. He coauthored a book with Wayne Williams, ''A History of the Sheltering Arms Hospital''.