MacMillan Hospital was established in a metropolitan area of the southeastern United States in the decade following the Civil War. It was named for Abner MacMillan, a successful lumber and hardware merchant whose business had prospered at war’s end when there was a great need for rebuilding in his war-ravaged region. The hospital was originally located in a large, colonnaded antebellum home that was MacMillan’s residence before his death. In addition to the house, MacMillan had donated the 40 acres on which it stood and $50,000—a large sum in the 1870s—for the charitable purposes to which the hospital was to be dedicated. Originally named for the city in which it was located, the board voted to change the name after MacMillan’s death.