The Marblehead Mile 4 & 5 - Lorrie Halblaub

In this series we are taking an historical look at an area that covers approximately a mile of Main Street in downtown Marblehead. Heading east from the Village limits, we will discover the facts and the stories of how Marblehead became what it is today.

4. The Magruder Hospital Peninsula Medical Center at 1297 W. Main Street

Magruder Hospital in Port Clinton was founded in 1940. Before Magruder, there was the Pool Hospital founded in 1920. However, Marblehead had a hospital before Port Clinton, from 1914 to 1941. We will talk about Marblehead’s Hospital and some of the doctors later in this series.

The Peninsula Medical Center was built in 1985. It is owned by H.B. Magruder Hospital. The first doctor was Jeffrey Wirebaugh, MD.  Steven Jackson, DO, took over the practice in 1995. Today, he also has a Nurse Practitioner, Stephanie Gonya.

5. St. Joseph and Holy Assumption Cemeteries

Next to the Medical Center is the parking lot of Biro Manufacturing. Toward the back of the parking lot is the entrance to a beautiful cemetery. The cemetery is on land that juts out into the quarry and offers stunning views of the Holcim quarry. The road that leads back to the cemeteries is appropriately called Two Cemeteries Road. 

St. Joseph Cemetery owns the  first part of the cemetery toward the north and Holy Assumption Cemetery is at the south end of the road. There are over 1,000 Roman Catholics buried here and less than 100 from the Orthodox Church.

St. Joseph church was founded in 1867 and Holy Assumption was founded in 1898.  The oldest graves are from St. Joseph Church. In fact, there are many unmarked graves with no stones from early burials. Just the names and dates were recorded by the priests. The oldest grave on this record is for 1-year-old Rosa Horki, who died in 1883.