The Reporter was a newspaper established in August of 1949 and published in the community of Lynnwood — before the city’s 1959 incorporation. With its office located at the crossroads of State Highway 99 and 196th Street, the newspaper covered happenings in the Alderwood Manor, Lynnwood and Edmonds areas. Founded and edited by Seley Alvin (Al) Wilcox, a Lynnwood businessman, the newspaper lasted only a few years after the sudden death of Mr. Wilcox at the age of 54.
An item of historical interest was published in The Reporter on Thursday, Dec. 14, 1950.
Since I was not living in Edmonds during this time, it is unfamiliar news to me, and I am hoping that someone will perhaps recall this bit of local history and solve a mystery.
The article was under the heading “New South End Hospital Opened by Mr. and Mrs. Dave Mudiman.” For those new to the area, this small hospital would have predated the opening of Edmonds’ Stevens Hospital by over a decade.
According to the newspaper, Lynnwood, Edmonds and the surrounding areas now had its first real hospital facility. Named Pleasant View Hospital, and located at the foot of Maplewood Hill, the hospital was said to be about one and a half miles west of the community of Lynnwood on the Edmonds highway. The article claimed that the hospital was well-equipped for surgery and obstetrics.
The hospital was built and owned by Dave and Edith Mudiman and was run on a 24-hour schedule, with registered nurses in attendance at all times. Mrs. Mudiman herself, was the head nurse at the hospital.
Further, the article went on to say that most of the practicing physicians in the area, including those from Seattle Heights, were already using the new hospital. The owners stated that the hospital would relieve the strain on the Seattle and Everett hospitals, since the facility was the only one of its kind between the two cities.
Pleasant View Hospital was considered to be one of the most up-to-date hospitals, containing a waiting room, three private rooms, three semi-private rooms, doctors’ quarters, and a laboratory. Babies were placed in the rooms with their mothers. There were bathroom facilities in each room. The surgery was equipped with the latest surgical instruments, and just off the surgery room was the labor room with accommodations for the complete comfort of the patients.
Mr. and Mrs. Mudiman also operated a convalescent home which was fully equipped and staffed. For this facility they had installed a centrally located television set, so that the patients could enjoy the entertaining programs. As a reminder to the younger readers; television was in its infancy at this time—so, this would have been a pleasant perk for many patients.
For the convenience of those who wanted to visit or send flowers to the patients, the newspaper on Thursday, Jan. 25, 1951 gave a list of the patients at Pleasant View Hospital. These were Edmonds residents, Mrs. R. V. Hendrickson, Mrs. Velma Tellevick, Dr. O. W. Schmidt and Mrs. Albert Cardwell, and from Seattle, Mr. Oscar Woods. Mr. and Mrs. George Donaldson, Jr. of Edmonds, were reported to be the proud parents of a baby boy born at Pleasant View Hospital on Jan. 13, 1951.
From The Reporter under the date, Thursday, Feb. 1, 1951—Patients admitted to the Pleasant View Hospital were: Earl Hastings and Mrs. Jens Dennis of Alderwood Manor, and Mrs. Thomas Stratton and Mrs. George Wingate of Edmonds.
Babies born at the hospital and listed in the newspaper on the same date: Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Maurer of Alderwood Manor were the parents of a girl, born Jan. 21, 1951; a girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Walker on Jan. 22, 1951; a baby girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wright of Alderwood Manor on Jan. 24, 1951; Mr. and Mrs. Earl Hall were the parents of a baby boy, born Jan. 25, 1951; and on Jan. 27, 1951, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Sanders of Edmonds became the parents of a baby girl.
On Thursday, July 12, 1951, under new arrivals in The Reporter, this was the announcement:
Two young ladies were recently welcomed into the community. Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Korshaven are the proud parents of Diane Winifred Korshaven, who was born June 22 at Pleasant View Hospital in Edmonds. The young lady joins a brother Darrell, who was born in England. Mr. and Mrs. D. Korshaven of Alderwood Manor, and Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Toms of South Wales, England, are the grandparents
Donna Diane Burfitt is the other new miss. She joined Mrs. and Mrs. Russell L. Burfitt and their three-and-one-half-year-old son, Russell. Miss Donna Burfitt was born July 6, 1951 at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle.
Curious as to what happened to Pleasant View Hospital, I did a little research and found that hospital owner David Victor (Dave) Mudiman entered the U.S. Navy on Nov. 5, 1952 in Seattle and served during the Korean conflict both in the U.S. and overseas. He was discharged in San Francisco on Sept. 1, 1954. Also, about this same time, Mr. and Mrs. Mudiman were evidently divorced. Could these two events have led to the closing of the hospital?
I hope that a reader can help pinpoint the exact location Pleasant View Hospital and solve the mystery of its fate?
— By Betty Lou Gaeng
Betty Gaeng is a former long-time resident of Lynnwood and Edmonds, coming to the area in 1933. Although now living in Anchorage, she occasionally writes about the history and the people of both early-day Lynnwood and Edmonds.
Actually, I just noted that Ray Cloud in his book Edmonds, the Gem of Puget Sound, reported that Pleasant View Hospital, a former convalescent home, opened in North Edmonds in September, 1950. If any of the readers were born in Edmonds during the early 1950s, it is possible they were born in this small hospital.
My son Peter was born in Pleasant View Hospital in Edmonds on April 24, 1952; delivered by Dr. Richard Christian Goodhope , a well known G.P. (General Practitioner) who kept the costs-per day down because he believed in keeping new mothers in the hospital for 10 days before being ready to go home. Most of the other 4-5 patients (?) were elderly and a few of them spent time wandering up and down the small hallway; it didn’t take long before they knew there was a new baby and that brought them peeking into my room–even when the lights had been dimmed at night. At first, I worried, but when I invited them to come only for Baby Visiting TIme, we were all happy!
I recall that when I was doorbelling in an election on 3rd Ave. about 10 years ago a lady near 100 years old telling me that there once was a hospital at, or near, the corner of 3rd and Dayton St.
Dr. O. W. Schmidt lived in the area of 3rd and Dayton in a large house and practiced at home. He did have a place for patient’s to stay, but not a true hospital. Dr. Harry Kretzler, Sr. had an office with a small medical facility on the 2nd floor of the Beeson Building in the 1930s. They both did minor surgery (mostly emergency) at their facility, such as setting broken bones, or stitching up cuts–that sort of injury. They both made house calls, and delivered a lot of babies at the homes of the patients. I don’t know about Dr. Schmidt, but Dr. Kretzler had a nurse on duty with him in the Beeson Building. Back in the 1910s, Anna Huber, a registered midwife used to deliver babies at an old sanatorium in Esperance. The building is still there and has a history of also being a notorious roadhouse during prohibition.
I wonder if the hospital could have been at 203 3rd South, the corner of 3rd and Dayton, built in 1957 and what is now a 10-unit apartment building.
Pleasant View Hospital would have been on Highway 524 (196th Street) at about 94th–just east of Olympic–before you start east up Maplewood Hill toward Maplewood Hill Park and east to the Lynnwood Crossroads.