During the summer of 1907 a nurse from Johns Hopkins Hospital was stationed at Forteau, where she reportedly did very good work and endeared herself to the people of the village. After she left the men of the village petitioned the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen to have a hospital and a nurse at Forteau. In return they pledged to prepare the ground for building and each of them to give one week of work each year for maintenance. Grenfell agreed and Denison Cottage, the first Grenfell Nursing Station at Forteau, was opened in 1908.

Denison Cottage. (1912-15). The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 115-41.1.

Mission house and garden, Forteau. June 1934. The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 94-104.4.

Sun room, Forteau. 1923. The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 104-43.1.

Denison Cottage was named for the Rev John Henry Denison of Massachusetts, who made a sizeable contribution to Grenfell for its construction. Grenfell met Denison forty years after having a rather harrowing experience in southern Labrador. Denison had sustained some injuries during the American Civil War and his doctor suggested a sea voyage to help him recuperate.

Denison came to Labrador on a fishing schooner out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. To his detriment, the Captain was a southern sympathizer, and one day when Denison was walking on shore he weighed anchor and left him behind. As Denison walked along the Labrador coast in pursuit of his ship the local people helped him as much as they could. He finally caught up with his ship in Red Bay.

Denison Cottage was run almost single-handedly for the next 15 years by Nurse Florence E. Bailey. Known to those she served as Sister Bailey, she was an English nurse who first came to Battle Harbour with Grenfell and the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen in 1905. Under her direction Denison Cottage evolved from a small house when she first arrived to a neat and well-run hospital with a sick-ward and dispensary when she retired in 1923.

Sister Bailey in dispensary. Nurse Florence Bailey, standing in front of window, mixing medicine; shelf behind her lined with bottles. 1923. The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 104-41.2.

Sister Florence Bailey freeing her snowed-in windows, Forteau. ca. 1915. The Rooms Provincial Archives VA 115-15.2.

Sister Florence Bailey carrying snowshoes. ca. 1915. The Rooms Provincial Archives VA 115-15.3.

Sister Bailey was noted for her dedication to the people of Forteau and the surrounding area. She ministered to the families scattered along the coast for 50 miles to each side of Forteau. In addition to her medical work she was dedicated to improving the lives of the people, both spiritually and physically, as was the goal of Dr. Grenfell himself. She travelled to communities in the region to make house visits, led classes in Bible study and First Aid, started a soup kitchen and distributed used clothing.

Grenfell at one point also asked her to learn the art of flower making so that she could teach it to the local women to allow them to earn a little extra for their families. For about a decade the women of Forteau made silk flowers that were sold by the Industrial Department of the Grenfell Mission.

The Louie A. Hall nursing station at Forteau. Construction began in 1946. (1947). The Rooms Provincial Archives, IGA 24-395.

Louie A. Hall nursing station, Forteau. (1947-49). The Rooms Provincial Archives IGA 15-294.

Iris Mitchener (left) from Ilford, Essex was Nurse in Charge at Forteau from 1946-49. Anne Thompson (right) from Winchester, MA was a Community Worker at Forteau during the winter of 1948/49. CHE Collection, CHE-ID #1081.

Denison Cottage continued to be used until 1946. By that time the elements had taken their toll: the roof leaked, the building was heaved out of shape by frost and wind and it was very hard to heat in winter. Just before the outbreak of World War II Miss Louie A. Hall, a philanthropist and long-time friend of the IGA from Rochester, NY, made a large donation for the construction of a new nursing station at Forteau.

Construction was delayed by a shortage of building material and rising cost of labour related to the war, but by 1946 it could be delayed no longer. A crew of workmen from St. Anthony started building in June and completed the new Louie A. Hall Nursing Station in September. The Louie A. Hall Nursing Station was the centre of medical service in the Labrador Straits until the present Labrador South Health Centre opened in 1983.

E. Mary Taylor, an English nurse, came to Forteau in 1953 when she was 21 years old. She spent the next 30 years in charge of the Louis A. Hall Nursing Station until it closed in 1983. CHE Collection, CHE-ID #1167.

Jeanetta (Jean) Skelly, from Northern Ireland, came to Mary’s Harbour in 1964. In 1967 she transferred to Forteau where she worked with Mary Taylor until 1976. CHE Collection, CHE-ID #1166

Cornelia Linstead first worked at the Louie A. Hall nursing station in 1965 as a nurse’s aide. She later trained as a nurse and nurse practitioner and eventually became Site Manager at the Labrador South Health Centre. CHE Collection, CHE-ID #1140.