WINDBER -- Nearly a century after Windber Medical Center opened its doors, the coal company that started the industrial infirmary to care for its miners no longer commands this Somerset County community. Instead, it's the hospital that's the epicenter of town.

The Berwind-White Coal Mining Co. built the hospital in 1906, just as it created the store, theater and other amenities in the company town. But while the company's presence in Windber faded -- it now is known as the Berwind Group and occupies just an office in town -- the medical center has grown and evolved.

The hospital, which is a part of the Conemaugh Health System, and the Windber Research Institute are the Somerset County municipality's largest employers, maintaining a payroll of 469 and recruiting academics and physicians from as far away as Nigeria.

The medical center also is an influential force in residents' lives, encouraging other companies to relocate to the town, arranging mentoring relationships among employees and high school students, and offering the public the use of its facilities. More than 1,200 residents of the Windber area belong to the medical center's health club, and the town's senior center is located on campus.

"When I started in this industry, I couldn't understand why things were the way they were," said F. Nicholas Jacobs, a former high school teacher who's now the president of Windber Medical Center and Windber Research Institute. "Here's this facility that was created, in part, with taxpayers' money, and the taxpayers can't use it. It didn't make sense."

Incorporated in 1897, Windber once had a population as large as 12,000 as immigrants moved to the area to fill the abundant jobs in the coal industry, said Mayor Art Palumbo.

But the jobs slowly began to disappear as coal-mining companies shifted from deep mining to surface mining and Berwind-White started leasing mines and reserves to other companies.

Windber's population began to drop in the 1960s as residents left the area to find jobs, but Palumbo believes that the exodus has waned. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town had a population of more than 4,200 in 2002.

By February 1997, when Jacobs left his job as chief communications officer for the Conemaugh Health System to head Windber Medical Center, the hospital and Bestform, a lingerie manufacturer, were Windber's largest employers, together employing more than 800 workers.

But the hospital and the manufacturer had their share of financial difficulties. Bestform closed in 2002, cutting about 400 jobs, said Rich Wargo, Windber's manager.

In the 1990s, Windber Medical Center faced the same obstacles that other small hospitals faced, Jacobs said.

With just 82 beds, it's a small facility located less than eight miles from large hospitals, including another member of the Conemaugh Health System, Memorial Medical Center, and UPMC Lee Regional. Primary care physicians who treat those within the primary service area of 52,000 were -- and still are -- inclined to send their patients to the larger hospitals, Jacobs said.

The medical center is considered a small urban hospital because of its proximity to Johnstown and is not eligible for programs or government funding that a rural hospital receive, Jacobs said.

Nonetheless, he saw potential.

Jacobs first created an affiliation between the facility and a nonprofit consultancy called Planetree, an organization that helps hospitals brainstorm new ways to provide "patient-driven" care.

At first subtle, the hospital made steady changes, starting with more liberal visiting hours and including in-room messages, live entertainment and fresh-baked bread.

Soon, the hospital established a Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, which uses diet, exercise, support groups and stress management.

The Windber Research Institute began in 1999, creating a partnership with Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The hospital and the institute also have partnerships with General Electric Research and Development, Penn State University, Georgetown University and other institutions.

But by most accounts, Jacobs' most strategic move was seeking the help of U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Cambria, who over the years has directed millions of dollars in federal funds to the hospital and the research institute.

In July 2002, Murtha announced that $10 million of a defense appropriations bill would be directed to the center's Comprehensive Breast Care Project and Coronary Artery and Prostate Cancer Reversal Programs. In May 2000, the medical center received $4 million in Defense Department funding to lead a research initiative studying genetic factors in breast cancer.

The medical center in February 2002 officially dedicated the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center, which was named after the congressman's wife.

The medical center, which operated on a $17 million budget in 1997, now has an annual budget of $40 million and had a net income of $438,000 in the last fiscal year -- at a time when many small hospitals have struggled, Jacobs said. The research institute has an annual budget of $25 million.

The center's success makes Windber a more attractive place to other businesses, Palumbo said.

Within the last two years, NCR Government Corp.'s Teradata Division, Management Science Associates Inc., ThreatGuard and MDR Global Systems opened laboratories and offices in Windber.

However, the technology firms brought fewer than 100 jobs with them.

"It's a start," Palumbo said.

Jacobs said the town's founders probably would be pleased about the hospital's metamorphosis.

Berwind leaders wanted Windber to be the model of innovation and set a standard for other company towns, so architects laid extra-wide streets and built homes that had access to a central heating system. Windber had access to electricity before many neighboring towns, Jacobs said.

"When this hospital started, it took care of the people who provided the fuel to drive the 20th century," Jacobs said. "One hundred years later, people from all over the world are coming here to do research that drives the 21st century."