Photo by Derek Redd From left, Mark Benson, WVU Medicine North Region President Douglass Harrison and Diane Benson browse through historic photos of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital during a gala event Saturday celebrating the hospital's 175 years.

Guests celebrated the past, present and future of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital on Saturday during a gala event honoring the hospital’s 175th anniversary at Wheeling Park’s White Palace.

As those guests entered the White Palace and moved from the main floor to the banquet hall upstairs, they walked through a time capsule of the hospital’s existence. The main floor housed the hospital’s past, shown in pictures and artifacts like historical uniforms and other memorabilia.

As they moved upstairs, they learned more about the hospital’s current work as the medical epicenter of the Ohio Valley, as well as what is on the horizon.

“We wanted to do something that really brought in the past, where we’ve come from as the oldest hospital in the state, founded in the state of Virginia,” said WVU Medicine North Region President Douglass Harrison. “We thought it would be a nice theme to say, this is where we’ve come from, this is where we are today and this is where we’re going tomorrow.

“And that’ll be the theme of the night,” he added, “a reflection of the past and that the future is very bright.”

The future of the hospital will be a bright one, said Josh Jefferson, president of Regional Economic Development Partnership and president of the board of directors for both WVU Medicine Wheeling and Reynolds Memorial Hospitals. The care WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital has provided for the Ohio Valley for nearly two centuries is “unprecedented,” he said, and will only grow stronger in the future.

“The care will always be the same,” he said. “It’s going to be the staff, the doctors, nurses and physical therapists. The treatment is only going to get better, and that’s what we’re trying to bring to the table now, world class care.”