Our History

Our beautiful white brick structure was built during the Civil War and was purchased by the Covington Sisters of Notre Dame for use as a convent and later a boarding school. The sisters were from Germany, and early information about the building, known as St. Joseph Heights, was written in German.

The church sold the building in 1946 to Dr. Nyron Bernard, a veterinarian and physicist; it has been an animal hospital ever since. Dr. Bernard remodeled the front of the building and added columns to make it appear similar to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington near Washington, DC. For a while, the brick exterior was painted pink.

Dr. Bernard was the nephew of Orville and Wilbur Wright and spent several years in Africa with Albert Schweitzer. Dr. Schweitzer gave Dr. Bernard an ape named Penelope, who lived with him in his veterinary clinic for six years.

Dr. Bernard lived for many years in the building next to the clinic, where a train caboose was parked outside for much of that time. The building was sold to Dr. James Barton in 1985, and he worked there until his retirement in 2001, when he sold the practice to Dr. Mark Collett after working together for six years.

The basement of the building is fortified with two-foot thick rock walls that provide a clue as to the age of the building, as does the fireplace in the reception area on the first floor. The remainder of the first and second floors look and feel like a modern medical facility.