R-312 Page 1 of 2
2024
No. R-312. House concurrent resolution congratulating Grace Cottage Family Health
& Hospital on its 75th anniversary.
(H.C.R.246)
Offered by: Representatives Sibilia of Dover, Bos-Lun of Westminster, Burke of
Brattleboro, Chase of Chester, Coffey of Guilford, Goldman of Rockingham, Kornheiser of Brattleboro, Long of Newfane, Mrowicki of Putney, Pajala of Londonderry, Roberts of
Halifax, and Toleno of Brattleboro Offered by: Senators Harrison and Hashim Whereas, Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital (Grace Cottage) in Townshend, with its mission “to serve the healthcare needs of our community; to promote wellness, relieve suffering, and restore health,” epitomizes the importance of small rural hospitals in
Vermont, and Whereas, the hospital’s original building was a home built by Reverend Horace Fletcher in 1844 that, in 1949, Miss Mary Plumb, the then-owner, donated to Dr. Carlos Otis for establishing a local hospital, and Whereas, Dr. Carlos Otis founded the hospital on August 7, 1949, naming it for the wife of his friend and benefactor, Dr. Abel Grout, and Whereas, on opening day, Dr. Carlos Otis and hospital staff members Eunice Bills,
Bessie Leonard, Valerie Streeter, Lillian Lyons, and Emma Castle greeted 830 guests, and Whereas, family donations of the adjacent Stratton and Heins homes in 1950 and 1978,
respectively, expanded the hospital’s campus, and Whereas, improvements to the Grace Cottage campus have included the Wolff Outpatient Building in 1992; the Messenger Valley Pharmacy in 1996 (and this space was tripled in size in 2012); the new 19-bed, 18,750-square-foot hospital building in 1998 that enabled the original Fletcher House to be devoted exclusively to Grace Cottage Family Health, which, in 1995, had been certified as a federal Rural Health Clinic; the community wellness room in 2009; the diagnostic imaging suite in 2011; the Sheila B. Friedli Entrance and Catherine B. Stratton Reception Area in 2015; an expanded diagnostic imaging wing in 2018; and an Emergency Department expansion in 2023, and Whereas, in 2023 and 2024, Vermont Biz recognized Grace Cottage as one of the “Best Places to Work” in Vermont, the only hospital to receive this distinction during these years,
and Whereas, between 2017 and 2023, Grace Cottage has consistently won Best Place to
Work, Best Emergency Room, Best Hospital, Best Physical Therapy, Best Pharmacy, Best Doctor, and Best Pediatrician in the Brattleboro Reformer’s Readers’ Choice Awards, and Whereas, since 1949, Grace Cottage has tirelessly served southeastern Vermont with the highest quality health care through a medical staff closely tied to the local community,
now therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
VT LEG #377251 v.1
R-312 Page 2 of 2
2024
That the General Assembly congratulates Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital on
its 75th Anniversary, and be it further Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to
Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital.
VT LEG #377251 v.1