In 1924 Dr. H. Clay Salmons and Dr. Robert R. Garvey opened a small hospital in the new Salmons building on Main Street. The hospital was on the second floor of this building; the ground floor was the new location for the Turner Drug Store which is now the Royall Drug Company. There were about fifteen rooms, one of which was used for a labratory, one for an operating room, one for a sterilizing room, and two for offices. The kitchen was located in the rear of the building on one side of the hallway. the bedrooms for patients were in the center of the building.

Dr. Fred Hubbard, who had his own hospital in North Wilkesboro, would come to the Elkin hospital to perform general surgery. Dr. M. A. Royall performed tonsillectomies and other surgery of the eye, ear, nose and throat. Miss Nell Hamlin was the head nurse. During the first year that the hospital operated, there were 350 admissions - "about 25% of these admissions were charitable cases, and it speaks very highly of these two gentlemen to have taken care of and attended to the needs of those who were unable to take care of the expenses. . .

Elkin should be very proud to have so good a hospital in its midst. At this time there is a big movement to build a bigger and more modern hospital." The hospital only operated for two years and closed when Dr. Garvey moved to Winston-Salem to continue his practice there, but the need for a permanent hospital in Elkin had been clearly demonstrated.