Minneapolis General Hospital purchased its first motorized ambulance in 1911. Emergency Ambulance, Inc. began operation in 1913.
SMITH AMBULANCE
Smith Ambulance was started on or before 1935 by Harry Smith, a Brookside resident who built and lived at 4144 Xenwood with his wife Virginia. Smith Ambulance was headquartered at 2100 Lyndale. The internet gives us a book called Memoirs of an Ambulance Company Officer by Harry L. Smith, M.D., written in 1940 about his experience as an ambulance driver in WWI. Could this be the same person?
The competition between Emergency Ambulance and Smith was apparently quite intense – Emergency Ambulance’s 1938 ad warned, “DO NOT EXPERIMENT with makeshift transportation when sick, injured, convalescing.” In those days, ambulances just transported people – there was no concept of medics, paramedics or EMTs.
Smith Ambulance was bought by Martin Auto Livery in 1972. Martin Hense had started his company in 1920, and had hearses, limos, and ambulances in his stable. The two companies kept their names, and Smith generally covered the area south of Highway 12. The Smith name went out when Smith went bankrupt in 1981 and was transferred to Hennepin County. In May 1982 it was sold to Health One and the service became known as MedPlus. In the 1980s and ‘90s, there were many mergers and many changes in the industry.
DELL AMBULANCE
Little is known about this company, except that it advertised as operating from 6325 Minnetonka Blvd. from May 22 to June 26, 1958. This is the Beek’s Pizza building, which has a basement one can drive into. This was just before Beek’s opened at this address on July 3, 1958. We’d love to know more about this!