“Hospital Hill,” the old St. Charles Hospital built in 1922, is no more. These days, the hill near Franklin Avenue and Lava Road is home to the Newberry Hotel, and although the hospital is gone, one of its proudest legacies has made just made it to his milestone 75th birthday.
Since its inception, the Bend hospital has undergone a number of changes, transitioning from a small emergency facility to a larger facility and that larger facility to an even larger structure in 1951. That’s when Joe Sandoz, the first baby born at the facility on what was known as Hospital Hill, came into the picture.
“My mother has always been real proud of it, and I heard about it from her several times. She was in labor for 30 hours, so I don’t blame her for being proud of it,” Sandoz says.
On the days leading up to his delivery, Sandoz says his mother told him she was in competition with another mother to have the first baby born on Hospital Hill. When she won the competition, he says hospital staff gave his mother free diapers as a prize.
He was the first of 476 babies born in Hospital Hill in 1951.
Sandoz, who now lives in Eugene, will be traveling back to Bend this week to ring in his milestone 75th birthday. His family has been keeping plans under wraps, though he describes feeling a sense of excitement about connecting with his loved ones and sharing stories with them.
Back when Sandoz lived in Santiam Junction, an unincorporated community west of Sisters, he would travel 48 miles every day to get to school. He recalls when his father acquired an International Harvester truck which he would use to carpool with other kids going to school in Bend. When he turned 16, he would be allowed to drive a school bus over the Cascade mountain range as a way to help other kids get to school.
“It wouldn’t be too legal now,” Sandoz says.
Like Hospital Hill, the city of Bend has undergone many changes since 1951. A town filled with low-slung bungalows is now a city of new homes and high-rise apartment complexes — and it appears the city is slated for an expansion of several more.
The population in Bend has grown since that time as well. Since 1950, Bend’s population has grown by 99,198.
Sandoz welcomes the changes, and says they are inevitable in a place with such an attractive backdrop.
“I’m more of a country boy, so I am happier in less-populated places,” Sandoz says. “But, I am OK with it. It’s just gonna happen and it’s just the way it is.”
These days Sandoz doesn’t partake in all the sports he did in his heyday, though he is still an outdoorsman. He takes it easy while exploring nature and doing things like photographing wildlife.
The Source contacted St. Charles regarding Sandoz’s milestone birthday. They offered him some syrupy-sweet words.
“We want to wish Joe a wonderful 75th birthday and recognize this special milestone, as his birth marked a historic first for St. Charles’ hospital hill location,” Alandra Johnson, public information officer at St. Charles, says. “Today, we’re honored to be part of so many family beginnings in Central Oregon—welcoming nearly 2,500 babies last year alone.”
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