
Bradford's hospital was the second building in the nation to have an all-aluminum exterior. The first, in Davenport, Iowa, was built as a test run for the Alcoa Regional Enterprise Tower in Pittsburgh ( AL28). Here in McKean County, a reinforced concrete frame was built with steel angles to anchor the lightweight concrete and one-quarter-inch gunmetalgray cast-aluminum panels of the exterior shell. The panels were attached from the inside, making exterior scaffolding unnecessary. They were approximately eighty pounds per square foot lighter than the usual building materials at the time. The five-story, butterfly-wing-shaped, 219-bed hospital has remained unchanged from its original appearance. Attached to the east is the core of the hospital dating from 1938. Additions, which appear on average every twenty years, have been built to the north, south, and east of the Hendryx-designed portion.