The 2025 Pioneer Days badge features Denmar Hospital, which has gone through many changes since it was first established in 1917 by the West Virginia Legislature.
In 1917, it was founded as the West Virginia State Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium for the care of black TB patients. At that time, Denmar was the town and mill site for the Maryland Lumber Company, which was completing its lumbering operations.
The entire town was converted for use of the sanitarium. The boarding house became the main hospital and administration building. Some of the houses of the town were converted into living quarters for patients while others were living quarters for employees.
Patients were kept separate with men in one location and women and children in the other.
The Maryland Lumber Company mill structure and railroad shop building were used as a farm and dairy for the hospital.
Access to the hospital was provided by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’s Greenbrier Division.
Dr. B.A. Chrichlow was named superintendent, and the sanitarium received its first patients on January 31, 1919.
At that time, tuberculosis was often fatal, and many patients died while at Denmar. In its time as a TB hospital, more than 300 of those patients who succumbed were buried in a cemetery on the hospital grounds.
Among those buried on-site was the second superintendent, Dr. Samuel J. Bampfield, who died February 22, 1940.
In January 1938, ground was broken for a three-story building to replace the lumber company structures which were showing their age.
Patients moved into the new facility a year later. An additional wing was completed in 1952.
By the 1950s, tuberculosis treatment had advanced enough that that need for TB hospitals had ended, along with segregation of government-operated institutions.
In March 1957, the sanitarium was converted into a state hospital for all West Virginians with chronic illnesses and was known as Denmar Hospital.
Denmar Hospital closed in July 1990 and sat empty for three years, until it was once again converted – this time into a prison. In November 1993, it reopened as Denmar Correctional Center, housing medium-security prisoners.
A birthing center for female prisoners in the federal prison system occupies the former nurses’ quarters at Denmar.
The prison is still in operation and is known for its sewing industry. Since 1996, inmates are eligible to join the sewing program and make prison uniforms for all the prisons in the state of West Virginia – that’s uniforms for nearly 8,000 men and women.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the sewing program made face masks for state hospitals, the National Guard and area businesses. They also designed hospital gowns that were easier for hospital staff to use to dress patients.
There are informational signs on the site of the cemetery that includes a list of names of those who passed away from tuberculosis at the facility.
Pioneer Days badges are available at The Pocahontas Times office.
Information from The Pocahontas Times archives.
