Constructed in 1892 as two separate buildings on a bluff above the New River and the City of Radford, St. Albans Hospital in Pulaski County originally housed a well-respected private preparatory school for boys, St. Albans, that closed in 1911. In 1916 the two buildings were connected by a corridor and the 56-arce property then served as the privately operated St. Albans Sanatorium, opened by physician J. C. King to treat patients with “Mental and Nervous Disorders.” A former superintendent at Southwestern State Hospital, Dr. King envisioned a mental health treatment regimen that offered a farm for fresh food and occupations for patients, gardens and orchards, and various forms of outdoor recreation. Later changed to “hospital,” St. Albans provided employment and all forms of medical services, including emergency treatment, to the residents of Radford and surrounding rural counties. The only area hospital up to 1943, it remained in the King family until a corporation purchased the business in 1965 and added a rear addition in 1969. Designed in the Classical Revival style by a Philadelphia firm, and built largely with local materials, the building is both historically and architecturally significant.