Incorporated in 1881, the primary functions of the Nanaimo Hospital Association were to secure land and financing for a hospital building and to oversee general operations. The first Board of Directors included Robert Dunsmuir (President), John Pawson, E. Pimbury and A.R. Johnston (elected) and Marshall Bray (Provincial Government appointee). From 1881 to 1909, the Association acquired, by purchase and gift, 5 lots on the 300 block of Kennedy Street. The first hospital building on the site was erected in 1881 and an extension was added in 1883. In the late 1890s, a Maternity Patient building was completed and a Nurses' Home was built shortly after. A Nurses Training School operated on the site from 1906-1926. By the early 1920s, these facilities were inadequate and plans were developed for a new building. Financing difficulties delayed the completion of the building until 1928. The Women's Auxiliary and Western Fuel Employees Hospital Association were important fund raisers for the hospital building project. In 1953, the Hospital Board determined again that a new facility was needed. Planning for a larger, more modern facility began in 1954. Once more, funding was a problem and, in 1958, the South Central Vancouver Island Improvement District was created to broaden the hospital's tax base which had previously been drawn from Nanaimo only. In 1963, the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital was completed on a 15 acre site in the Woodlands area. The old Kennedy Street hospital was sold to K. G. Wall in 1968. It served as Malaspina Community College's first campus and later as a private long term care facility. On March 31, 1997, the Hospital Board was dissolved and governance of the hospital was taken over by the Central Vancouver Island Regional Health Board.