Ohio Valley General Hospital in Kennedy is looking for old stories, photographs and other memorabilia to showcase during its 100th anniversary celebration next year.

Sandy Havern, the hospital's assistant to the director of marketing, said one person had contacted Ohio Valley with a story about his grandmother, who was one of the first nurses at the hospital.

"Those are the kinds of memories we are looking for," said Havern, who is working on a commemoration book about the hospital's history. Also helping with the collection of memories is regional historian Hank Walshak, of Bethel Park.

Ohio Valley General was founded in 1906 on Park Way in Stowe in the middle of the Y-shaped road, where it was served by trolleys which brought patients to the hospital.

The hospital moved to Heckel Road in Kennedy in 1949.

"It was built on the site of an old farm," Havern said, "and old photographs show the hospital and the original farmhouse still standing next to the hospital."

The hospital has grown a great deal since its founding. Today it's a 116-bed facility which features, among other services, a wound care center, cardiac catheterization lab, pain treatment center and oncology services.

The hospital is expanding its maternity and surgical services wing, which will be finished next year, and the opening will coincide with the 100th anniversary celebration.

The new maternity and nursery unit will replace one built in 1949. It will be 16,000 square feet and will accommodate 10 private in-patient rooms for maternity and gynecological surgery, four labor, delivery and recovery rooms, a specially equipped room for performing C-section surgery, and an infant security system.

Havern said a number of community- and hospital-based anniversary events are scheduled for next year, but they are still on the drawing board.

Planned public tours of the hospital and the new maternity and surgical services wing are expected to be popular, she said.

Anyone with old photographs, stories or other memorabilia to share can call Havern at 412-777-6313.