Polio was a greatly feared, five letter word that swiftly shattered the quiet community of Hickory, in June of 1944. Within days of the Hickory Daily Record reporting the first case of polio on June 7, that one case rapidly turned into an epidemic. Charlotte Memorial Hospital was forced to shut its doors to new polio patients, and all families could do was wait for a miracle.

Bravely, the community of Hickory and the surrounding Catawba County communities, joined together, and in an astonishing 54 hours, completed construction on the Hickory Emergency Infantile Paralysis Hospital. This outpouring of community service and the phenomenal opening of a specialized hospital in less than 3 days, led to the “The Miracle of Hickory.”

You can share in the miracle by viewing personal stories, pictures, and items used during the polio epidemic, at the Hickory History Center’s exhibit, “The Miracle of Hickory: The 1944 Emergency Polio Hospital.” Highlights of the exhibit include an infant's Iron Lung purchased by a Catawba County family used during the polio outbreak; a series of leg braces from Mrs. Bandy Setzer of Hickory used by her from infancy to adulthood; and a collection of personal items from Dan Moury, a nine year old boy treated at the hospital.

“The Miracle of Hickory: The 1944 Emergency Polio Hospital,” will be on display at the Hickory History Center, until 2011. For more information on the “Miracle of Hickory” exhibit, please call the Harper House/ Hickory History Center at 828-324-7294.

Heart of the Healing Extension Exhibit