Mary Greeley Medical Center

Mary Greeley Medical Center is a 220 bed regional referral center owned by the City of Ames, Iowa. Although city owned, no public funds are used for ongoing operations, and it operates much like a private hospital. As the second largest employer in Story County, it is located 1/2 mile north of the Ames central business district with a staff of 1,437 employees and annual payroll of $34.7m. Administrative responsibility is held by a five person publicly elected board.

History
Established as Mary Greeley Memorial Hospital in memory of recently deceased wife of Captain Wallace Greeley. Both Greeleys had been active in civic affairs with Captain Wallace as Mayor of Ames from 1881-1890 and three terms in the Iowa Legislature, and Mary as a member of the public library board.

Upon completion of construction begun in 1915 at a cost of $80,000, the hospital was dedicated as a gift of Captain Greeley to the city on December 24, 1916. The original building was located on the East side of Douglass Ave between 11th and 12th Streets, and has been expanded to include surrounding blocks. After much debate in the 1980s and early 1990s regarding a plan to expand further west into several established residential areas, mainly to address parking demands of staff and hospital users, a multi-story parking ramp was built in 1995 and expanded to accommodate 850 vehicles.