Columbus Rural Rest Home Nursing Staff

The nursing staff of the Columbus Rural Rest Home is pictured here on the hospital's fifty-acre campus. The psychiatric hospital, founded in 1916 by Dr. George T. Harding Jr. changed its name to Harding Hospital after his son Dr. George T. Harding III became director in 1934. Harding Hospital pioneered treatments that became standard practice in psychiatry. Harding Hospital offered one of the earliest training programs in psychiatric medicine in the United States. Hundreds of psychiatrists received their training residencies at Harding Hospital. Training for other health professionals was provided at Harding, including social workers, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists and art therapists. The hospital was in Worthington for eighty years.