Dr. John Claude Casstevens Sr. was born on this day in 1900, in Iredell County, to James W. and Mary Williams Casstevens.
John was educated in Iredell County, at the Harmony Farm Life School. He graduated from Wake Forest College in 1924, and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia. He did post graduate work at the University of North Carolina in 1934.
John married Julia Esther Owen, a nurse whom he met in Richmond, Virginia, in 1926.
Dr. Casstevens opened the Casstevens Hospital in 1946, located on Stratford Road where Knollwood intersects. Stratford Road was called Hanes or Hanestown Road at that time.
The new hospital cost approximately $50,000, with an 18-bed capacity, and a staff of five nurses.
Like many businesses that opened about this time, getting building materials and other facilities proved challenging in post-war America.
Dr. Casstevens worked as physician and surgeon at the hospital until he retired about 1960.
He was a 32nd degree Mason, former director of the Eye Bank of North Carolina, and was a member of several medical and science associations.
Dr. Casstevens passed away in 1970.
The photo above shows the Casstevens Hospital on Stratford Road.
Photo courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
I had my tonsillectomy there circa 1957 when I was 7 or 8. We called it “Casstevens Clinic”. I wanted to see what my tonsils looked like, so the Dr. agreed to save them for me. I was ecstatic when I woke up from the ether and the nurse told me I could have any ice cream I wanted! I don’t remember what I ordered, but I ate a big dish and immediately threw it up.
Dr. Casstevens lived in Clemmons for many years and had a clinic on the second floor of a building located where Piedmont Federal has their office at the intersection of Clemmons Road and Middlebrook Drive. One of my sisters was born there. I also had my tonsils removed at the Stratford Road Clinic in 1947. I would love to have a picture of the Clemmons Clinic if anyone has one.
Dr. Casstevens delivered me on a Sunday morning in May of 1938 in his Clemmons clinic, as well as stitching me up a couple of times in the early 1940s. It was good to have a doctor so close to our home just off Stadium Drive in Clemmons.