When most newbies to the Eaton Rapids area drive by the intersection of W. Plain and S. Clinton, they notice that Addams Family-type mansion that sits on the southwest corner. Now a private residence, history knows this place as the old Stimson Hospital.
From 1918 to 1957, over three thousand births took place with countless thousands of others were patients…but before that, it was a residence. It was built in the 1870s – approximately 1874 – by a man called Mr. Sweezey. There are a few Sweezeys buried in Eaton Rapids and nearby Charlotte, but no clue as to which ‘Mr. Sweezey’ it was.
In the 1910s, the house was owned by Dr. William Puffenberger. Later in 1917, he sold the house to Harriet Chapman. Harriet enlisted Charles Stimson and Francis Blanchard – both doctors – and the three went ahead and turned the old Victorian mansion into a 20-room hospital…