A fire of unknown origin destroyed an iconic Albany building last Tuesday night, November 29, leaving only portions of the brick walls standing that once was the Maple Hill Hospital.

Although the building was considered to be the oldest brick home in Albany, it was most commonly recognized for the role it played in local history during the years between 1942 and April 1966 when it was operated as a hospital.

The Albany Fire Department was dispatched to the scene of the fire at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night and arrived to find the building fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters remained on the scene until the early hours of Wednesday morning fighting the blaze.

Albany Fire Department Chief Robert Roeper, who was still on the scene of the fire early Wednesday morning surveying the damage and looking for evidence, told the Clinton County News that an arson investigation would be called for in the case.

He noted that although the building had been boarded up for some time, he had determined that the boarding material had been removed from one of the windows on the ground floor.

Roeper said that the current owner of the property, Jeff Hunley, did not have any insurance coverage on the vacant building.

Roeper, who like many Albany and Clinton County residents was born in the facility, said he hated to see it destroyed noting that he “drew my first breath here.”

During operation as a hospital, the facility was owned and operated by Clinton County native Dr. Floyd B. Hay.

According to his book, The Country Doctor, the Maple Hill Hospital was opened on January 1, 1942.

The facility had 15 beds, an operating room, a delivery room, nursery and laboratory with services for Albany and Clinton County and area residents that included office visits, emergency treatments, births and general surgery.

Several doctors and a host of staff members treated patients for nearly a quarter-century before the facility closed in 1966, according to Hay in his book, because of changes in federal regulations and Medicare.

Dr. Hay was the first full-time Clinton County trained surgeon. He continued to practice medicine in Albany and Clinton County up until his untimely death at the age of 79 as the result of an automobile accident.

According to local historian and attorney David Cross, the structure was a private home prior to being purchased by Hay and transformed into the medical facility that most contemporary local residents remember.

Constructed by Elzy Bertram, it was likely completed in about 1908.

Cross told the Clinton County News last week that Bertram, who signed his name “E. Bertram”, was a local attorney and was the father of attorney Randall Bertram of Monticello and the great-grandfather of attorney George Bertram, now of Jamestown.

“Bertram was a leading attorney in Albany and was elected to the State Senate as a Democrat in 1909, defeating Dr L.C. Nell, a Republican, of Adair County by 14 votes. He lost Clinton County by two votes,” Cross noted.

Bertram bought the majority of the property from G.E. Harrison in 1904 and the Harrison family left Albany for Jamestown and then Crossville, Tennessee. His son, G.E. Harrison, established Trade-A-Plane and Rock & Dirt magazines and developed Lake Tansi.

“Bertram moved from the county to Monticello about 1919 and that year sold the property to George W. Boles, a Union Army veteran who was a member of Tinker Dave Beaty’s Union scouts,” Cross said. “It is said that he left Fentress County after the Civil War because it was less dangerous across the Kentucky border.”

Cross noted that Boles was an ancestor of Robert Paul Boles and Randy Speck, both of Albany, among others.

Dr. Hay bought the building in 1941.