About St. Anne
Our history
St. Anne Centre exists because five parishes decided their communities would not go without care. This is that story.
Timeline
1945
A community answers an urgent need
When Dr. B.A. LeBlanc fell seriously ill, Dr. G.R. Deveau was left to care for all of Isle Madame. Maternity cases in winter were a constant worry. Four clergy — Monsignor Alfred Boudreau, Rev. A.P. Poirier, Rev. Wilfred Boucher and Father George Landry — obtained permission to purchase the Bishop's Palace at Arichat for $8,500, raised by the communities.
1946
The Red Cross Hospital opens
Doors opened January 7, 1946; the first maternity case arrived the next day. The first staff were two nurses, two aides, a cook, a maintenance man, a floor girl and a laundry girl, with fifteen adult beds, eight bassinets and four pediatric cribs.
1957
Les Filles de Jésus take over operations
Red Cross policy required the Society to withdraw financial support after eleven years, relinquishing all interests to the Board on condition the hospital keep operating. The Board secured the services of “Filles de Jésus”, with contributions continuing from the five parishes.
1960s – 1980
From active beds to nursing care
After some 2,500 births the maternity ward closed and patients were referred to specialists in Antigonish. Pediatric cribs followed, and in 1980 the active beds were converted to a nursing care unit of eleven beds.
1985
The present 24-bed home is built
Board effort and public support produced the present twenty-four bed home for special care, annexed to an Out-Patient Department with laboratory, x-ray, trauma and examining rooms, a diabetes clinic and visiting specialists — a pilot project and model for others in Nova Scotia.
1996 – 1997
The Veterans Wing
Five additional beds in a separate wing were completed in 1996 and the Veterans Wing opened in June 1997, built with Veterans Affairs Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the generosity of the citizens of Isle Madame and Louisdale.
1998
The Auxiliary heliport opens
The Ladies Auxiliary raised the full $26,500 cost of a heliport on land leased from the Episcopal Diocese of Antigonish. It opened May 27, 1998 as the second qualified and registered heliport in the Journal of Air Transports, and the Board named it in the Auxiliary's honour.
Source: stannecentre.ca — History of St. Anne Centre