As the city of Williamsport and nearby towns grew, so did the need for a hospital to serve the growing population.
Bad roads and long drives made travel for care almost impossible.
That's why 12 local doctors joined forces to open a hospital in Muncy for people in the eastern end of Lycoming County.
The 18-bed health clinic opened in 1922 in a Victorian home that was formerly the Noble family mansion on East Water Street.
When the $10,000 hospital first opened, locals felt it offered the utmost in health care.
Dr. T. Kenneth Wood, a prime mover for the founding of the hospital, was its 1st president.
Over the next 2 decades, the hospital's board only allowed doctors.
To help bring fresh vision and thinking, they began to let lay members of the community join the board in 1940.
Two of these men — Earl D. Buck and W. Charles Walters — led the charge to expand this young hospital. And in 1945, the board agreed.
Spurred by a $550,000 pledge and a 2nd campaign, the hospital began building what is today UPMC Muncy.
In February of 1991, Divine Providence Hospital bought Muncy Valley Hospital. Since then, both carry out a Catholic faith-based mission.
