History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 122

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 122

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CITY HOSPITAL .- At the meeting of the City Council on the 10th of July, 1845, an ordinance was passed directing the appointment of a committee of five to select a building site and cause plans to be made for a city hospital. The committee selected a tract of ground, embracing about twenty-eight acres, in the city common, at the head of Soulard Street and west of St. Ange Avenue, bounded north by Linn Street and south by Lafayette Avenue, the same ground where the hospital now stands. This site was originally oc- cupied by the St. Louis cemetery. The land was sur- veycd by Henry Kayser, city engineer, and contracts were awarded in August of that year for the con- struction of the building. The hospital was partly completed (the original plans as prepared by Thomas Walsh were not fully carried out), and was immedi- ately put to use in August, 1846. The building was then one hundred and eleven feet long by fifty and a half fect wide, which was but the northern half of

the whole front, originally designed to be two hun- dred and thirteen feet in length, with extended wings on each side running westwardly. It was three stories in height, inclusive of stone basement nine feet above ground. Besides rooms for domestic purposes and officers' quarters, there were on the principal floor three wards for patients, and on the second floor six wards. The wards measured from nineteen by nine- teen and a half to nineteen by thirty-eight feet. The part of the building then completed cost $17,068.57. Drs. John S. Moore and M. M. Pallen, health officers under Mayor Bernard Pratte, were appointed to take charge of the hospital, and to have the sick removed from the St. Louis Hospital, where they had pre- viously been attended to at the city's expense.

The succeeding mayor, Peter G. Camden, was em- powered to appoint, by and with the consent of the Council, a resident physician to serve one year at a salary of two hundred dollars per annum ; four attend- ing physicians, to be selected from the medical schools of the city alternately, each physician to serve three months ; four consulting physicians to serve one year, and one steward and one matron, at a yearly salary, respectively, of six hundred and two hundred dollars.

The hospital could accommodate about ninety pa- tients, and was supplied with few conveniences. The grounds were not inclosed. The following was the staff of officers under the first organization : Dr. David O. Glasscock, resident physician ; Col. N. Wyman, steward; Mrs. Susan F. Wyman, matron ; Drs. B. Bush Mitchell, J. B. Johnson, Charles A. Pope, and Thomas Barbour, attending physicians ; Drs. William Beaumont, John S. Moore, Thomas Reyburn, and J. N. McDowell, consulting surgeons. The second resi- dent physician was Dr. D. M. Cooper, assisted by Drs. E. F. Smith and John T. Hodgen. Dr. David Prince, now of Jacksonville, Ill., was resident physician of the hospital during the cholera season of 1849 until the epidemic had to a great extent subsided, when he was succeeded by Dr. T. Y. Bannister, who held the position until 1857. He was succeeded by Dr. O. C. Johnson, and he by Dr. L. T. Pine ; then followed in order Drs. A. Jaminet, J. V. L. Brokaw, R. H. Paddock, Charles Spinzig, J. W. Hall, E. D. Clark, J. G. Morgan, T. F. Prewitt, G. Hurt, and D. V. Dean, who still holds the position, and under whose charge the institution has been greatly improved in efficiency and equipment, while the expense of admin- istration has been materially diminished.

On May 15, 1856, the hospital was almost wholly destroyed by fire, which broke out about three o'clock in the morning in the lecture-room in the southwest wing of the building, and in a few hours only a ruin

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

was left. The patients were all removed, and those who were unable to assist themselves were carried to the Sisters' Hospital at Fourth and Spruee Streets, where they were cared for. Only one life was lost, that of an insane Italian, who rushed baek into the flames after having been once reseued. Arrange- ments were then made for the use of a part of the United States Marine Hospital and of the buildings on the county farm until the hospital could be re- built. In May, 1857, the main building and exten- sion of the hospital were completed, but were not occupied until the following July. The total eost of rebuilding the hospital was $46,079.16; the engines, outhouses, fenees, ete., cost about $16,000.

The grounds of the hospital contain some eight aeres. An ornamental garden about forty feet wide lies between the front of the building and Linn Street, on which it fronts. The main building is in the shape of an " L," the wing facing toward Lafayette Avenue.

During the years 1873-74 a new wing was erected on the Lafayette Avenue side of the lot four stories in height, including the basement. It is "T"-shaped, measuring thirty-four by one hundred and twenty feet and thirty-eight by fifty-six feet. This has re- lieved to a considerable degree the overerowded con- dition of the hospital, but the building is still inade- quate to the requirements of so large a eity as St. Louis.

THE HOUSE OF INDUSTRY was opened Oct. 1, 1872, for the reception of patients, and was devoted to the treatment of women who were sent thither on certificate of the examining physicians under the " social evil" registration law. Dr. E. P. Powers was the resident physician until the spring of 1875, when Dr. P. V. Sehenek was appointed to that position, and the hospital was made a general female hospital for the reception of all the female patients of the city, except such cases of emergeney and night eases as cannot be carried to such a distance. The building is a fine briek structure, situated upon high ground in the western part of the eity, one mile west of Tower Grove Park. The present superintendent is Dr. George F. Hulbert.

THE UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL,1 for the treatment of siek and disabled seamen of the mer- chant marine, is situated on Marine Avenue, south of the United States Arsenal, in the southern portion of the eity overlooking the river, and is distant about three miles from the eustom-house. The surgeon in

charge is Dr. Henry W. Sawtelle. The local quaran- tine station is about twelve miles below the city, and during the sickly season all vessels hailing from epi- demie regions are carefully inspected, good accomnio- dations being provided for those persons who are de- tained for examination or treatment.

By the aet of 3d Mareh, 1837, an appropriation was made, and authority given the President of the United States to eause to be selected suitable sites for marine hospitals on the Western waters for the benefit of sick seamen, boatmen, and all other navigators on the Western rivers and lakes, restrieting the number to three on the Mississippi, three on the Ohio, and one on Lake Erie. To accomplish its provisions the President was authorized to call to his aid a board of the medical staff of the army. The commission ap- pointed under the provisions of this aet reported in November, 1837, which report was laid before Con- gress with the documents accompanying the Presi- dent's message to the second session of the Twenty- fifth Congress. In that report, among other sites seleeted and contracted for, was one at St. Louis, for the sum of seven thousand four hundred and sixty- eight dollars.

The board of surgeons, in their report, state : " From the most authentic information in their reach, there were at that time navigating the Ohio and Missis- sippi Rivers 638 steamboats, requiring tlie employ- ment of 15,950 hands, and the number of officers and hands navigating those rivers in keel- and flat- boats was estimated at 30,000, making the aggregate number engaged in navigating those rivers 45,940 men." The same report, when remarking on the site selected at St. Louis, says, "St. Louis, as the site seleeted for the third and last hospital on the Missis- sippi River, presents sueh superior and evident claims over every other town on the upper portion of the river that it is hardly necessary to enumerate them."

By the act of the 29th of August, 1842, Congress appropriated the sum of seven thousand four hundred and sixty-eight dollars, the amount which had been stipulated in the contract made by the board of sur- geons with William C. Carr for the site selected by them at St. Louis. The money not having been ap- propriated and paid within the time stipulated, Mr. Carr having deelincd executing the conveyance, and no further action having been taken by Congress, the money appropriated reverted baek to the treasury.

The Treasury Department, however, contraeted for the maintenance of patients at the Charity Hospital in St. Louis, at three dollars per week for each one, board, lodging, nursing, medieal attendanee, ete., sup- plied by the hospital. At these priees the funds

1 The author is indebted for the greater part of the material from which this sketch is compiled to Dr. Henry W. Sawtelle, surgeon in charge of the United States Marine Hospital.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

assigned went but little way in supplying the numer- ous persons claiming aid.

On the 13th of January, 1846, Hon. James H. Relfc introduced into Congress a resolution instruct- ing the Committee on Commerce to inquire into the expediency of establishing a marine hospital at St. Louis. The necessary legislation was securcd, and a board of surgeons appointed in 1848 to select a site, the amount of the purchase-money being limited to ten thousand dollars. In 1849 the additional sum of twenty thousand dollars was appropriated. A site was selected on the ground known as the Magazine lot, situated about half a mile below the United States Arsenal, and between Carondelet Avenue and the Mississippi River, which was transferred to the medi- cal service by the War Department in 1850. In January, 1852, the hospital was under roof, and about the 1st of August, 1855, was occupied by the Marine Hospital patients, who were then divided between the City Hospital and the Charity Hos- pital. After the act passed for the erection of the Marine Hospital, Dr. J. N. McDowell was appointed hospital physician.

The building erected in 1855 is a parallelogram, one hundred and eight feet by eighty-seven. It has three floors, a basement, an attic, and a cupola, and the roof is pyramidal. Each floor on both cast and west sides has open porticoes, fifty-four feet by ten, which are connected with the wards by large central and end halls. On each floor are eight large rooms or wards, with small rooms on the extreme corners, which open into the side hallways. The kitchen, convalescents' and attendants' dining-rooms, dispen- sary, office, and surgeon's quarters are on the first floor, the wards for patients being on the second and third. While the external conditions are excellent, the grounds being high and rolling, with a free circula- tion of air, the internal arrangements, both as re- gards ventilation and easy management, are defective, the only escape for the impure air, except through the windows and doors, being found in the octagonal cu- pola, four sheet-iron pipes passing through the roof, six small skylights, and four wooden shafts opening from the outside into the east and west attic rooms, with no provision to convey the foul air from the wards to the attic.

During the civil war the hospital was used for the sick and wounded of the army, and to meet the emergency temporary wards were constructed of rough material after the barrack plan on three sides of a square just north of the main building, the stone walls around the court forming an oblong square, within which were built a large stone powder

magazine and a wooden tank-house. The wards are four hundred and fifty-one feet in length, nineteen and one-fourth in width, and nine and one-half in height, which, with the present average number of patients, gives sixteen hundred and forty-nine cubic feet of air-space per man. They are well ventilated by thirteen wooden shafts passing through the centre of the roof. A piazza extends entirely around the outside of the building.

Three experiments have been made at hcating the main building. Originally hot-air furnaces were uscd, and subsequently fireplaces and stoves, which in turn gave place to a steam-hcating apparatus. Through some defect, however, sufficient heat could not be maintained by the latter method, and the ap- paratus was removed several years ago. Stoves and open grates have since been depended upon. The pavilion wards are also heated by means of large stoves.

In the autumn of 1879 the temporary pavilion wards werc repaired sufficiently to make them suitable for winter use. The walls were clap-boarded, a new composition roof and stone porches were built, and the open spaces under the veranda sheathed. During the summer of the same year an abundant water sup- ply was obtained by tapping the city main on Marine Avenue in front of the hospital, and the old tank- house was torn down, together with the remaining portion of the stone wall at the south end of the court which originally formed the square. The stone powder-house or magazine still remains, and is used to accommodate the engine, boiler, and laundry. Ground was broken for the new executive building of the hospital Sept. 15, 1881, and the building was com- pleted and ready for occupation Feb. 15, 1882. The plans were prepared under the direction of the sur- geon-general. The building stands on the northwest portion of the reservation, commanding a fine view of the river and surrounding country. It is a brick structure, forty-four feet front by forty-two, with lime- stone caps for the windows and doors, and a veranda in front, and is connected with the pavilion wards by a covered way. It has two floors and a basement, attic and observatory. The basement rooms are used principally for store-rooms.

The surgeon's office, reception-room, dispensary, and operating-room are on the first floor, and the second floor is occupied as quarters for the steward and attendants. The main hall is ten feet wide, with a marble-tiled floor, and the interior trimmings are of Eastlake design. All the doors have transoms, which operate by patent fastenings. The rooms are provided with ventilating registers which open into

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

flues and terminate in the attic, from which point tin tubes are carried immediately under the slate roof to the ventilating louvres in the roof lunettes of the ob- servatory. The first floor is heated by a furnace and open grates, with anthracite coal as fuel. The second floor is heated by means of small stoves. The dis- pensary, operating-room, and officers' bath-room are provided with hot water from a cylinder boiler, with proper attachments to a small base-heater. The build- ing 'contains all the latest improvements and con- veniences, and is admirably adapted for its purposes.

QUARANTINE HOSPITAL .- Prior to 1854 the quarantine station was on Arsenal Island, but as the southern part of the city became more densely peopled, objections were made to the hospital being kept in that location, and arrangements were made for its removal to a location some eleven and a half miles south of the city. In 1855 two small, badly- ventilated buildings were constructed for the recep- tion of such patients as might be taken from the boats, and a stone house already upon the property refitted for the residence of the officers. In 1867 four large buildings upon Arsenal Island were re- moved to quarantine, and thus a first-class hospital was established there. This hospital was discontinued as a general hospital, but is continued now as a small- pox hospital, and during the yellow fever season of 1878 yellow fever cases were taken there. Dr. A. Montgomery was the resident physician in 1867; in 1869, Dr. Thomas Fox had charge, and in 1870, Dr. Robert A. Burgess. Then followed Drs. S. H. Bro- kaw and R. A. Anderson. The latter officer was in charge of the hospital when it was discontinued as a general hospital.

ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL .- Two preliminary meet- ings were held in the early part of the month of November, 1865, in a room in the Mercantile Library by a few zealous Episcopalians, for the purpose of con- sidering the advisability and the need of establishing a hospital for the sick, and for furthering other church work in a portion of the city needing the labors of a missionary. Those present were Rev. J. P. Cannon, M.D., and William H. Thompson, R. H. Spenger, H. S. Brown, J. R. Triplett, E. H. Mead, B. E. Walker, Charles Thaw, R. M. Wilson, W. T. Mason, E. A. Corbett, E. P. Curtis, M. N. Burchard, J. Percival, F. A. Lane, Henry Brown, V. W. Knapp, Herbert Bell, M. Williams, James Mitchell, W. B. Crittenden, and Mr. Donaldson.

At their suggestion a mecting was called by Bishop Hawks in the basement of St. George's Church of the rectors and members of the Episcopal Church in the city, to which the whole matter was referred. At

that meeting there were present of the clergy the Rev. Drs. Berkley and Schuyler, and the Rev. Messrs. McKim and Spencer ; of the laity, J. P. Down, J. W. Luke, Edward Mead, R. H. Franklin, J. F. Madison, Francis Hawks, H. S. Brown, Charles Mauro, Judge W. F. Ferguson, and Dr. J. J. Clark. Articles of organization were approved, and the name " St. Luke's Association" was adopted.

A building was erected for a hospital on an elevated plateau with spacious grounds between Olio and Sumner Streets, and was in many respects admirably adapted to the purpose. The first patient was not ad- mitted until the following April. The first medical staff was composed of Drs. J. B. Johnson, J. S. B. Alleyne, J. J. McDowell, J. J. Clark, E. S. Lemoine, F. V. L. Brokaw, T. F. Prewitt, and James P. Gal- lagher.

During the summer of 1866, St. Louis was visited by that fearful scourge, Asiatic cholera, and St. Luke's Infirmary was thrown open to the public for gratuitous treatment of cholera patients during its continuance. The history of the hospital was for years one of financial embarrassment and painstaking, earnest endeavor on the part of the board of trustees to secure and wisely dispose of the funds necessary to make it a success.

In September, 1867, an important step was taken in the right direction. It was resolved " that, for the purpose of insuring greater efficiency in the house- hold management, a board of lady visitors be consti- tuted, to consist of two ladies for each city parish." The experience of over three years convinced the friends of the hospital that in its then location it was too far removed from the centre of population, and particularly inaccessible for surgical patients brought in from railroads and demanding immediate care. A removal was, therefore, determined upon and effected in the month of March, 1870, to the corner of Elm and Sixth Streets.

Upon this removal rooms were furnished by the ladies of Christ Church and St. George's, and also the Good Samaritan room by Mrs. Triplett. A new in- terested seem to be aroused among the ladies by reason of the nearness and accessibility of the hospital. In November, 1873, Dr. Pottinger was elected visiting physician, and Dr. Hodgen invited to act as surgeon- in-chief, and Dr. Pallen as assistant. In June, 1873, the hospital was removed to a building on the north side of Pine Street, between Ninth and Tenth Streets.

At the annual meeting in 1874 the board reported the hospital as entirely out of debt. For some years every effort has been put forth to secure the means for erecting a building for the hospital. This has at

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

length been accomplished, and now the hospital (the corner-stone of which was laid on the 26th of June, 1881) is located at the northeast corner of Washing- ton Avenue and Twentieth Street. The structure, which cost forty-one thousand dollars, is built on land donated by Henry Shaw, and was dedicated on Whit- sunday, May 28, 1882. Messrs. Barnett & Taylor were the architects of the building, in the internal arrangements of which, under the supervision of Dr. John Green, every device and appliance for the care of the sick suggested by modern science has been carried out. The outside walls are double, with air- chambers between, and the floors arc of marble or of yellow-pinc stained and waxed. The other woodwork is of sweet-gum, with ash and cypress, oiled. The plumbing and ventilation are in accordance with strict sanitary conditions. There is a fire-proof Whittier elevator, large enough for a cot and patient, and the rooms are furnished luxuriously, most of them being memorial gifts, as, for instance, the reception-room, furnished by Mrs. Kennett; the waiting-room, by Mrs. Sides ; the private parlor, by Mrs. Foster ; two rooms to the memory of the late Dr. John T. Hodgen, by E. C. Simmons and Mrs. Tyler ; the Schuyler room, by Christ Church ; the Holy Communion room, by the church of that name ; Trinity room, by Trinity Church ; Mount Calvary room, by Mount Calvary Church ; the Susan R. Larkin, St. Barbara's, and Bu- chanan memorial rooms, by ladies who withhold their names; and other rooms by Mrs. Wainwright, Mrs. Thornburgh, Mrs. Whitelaw, Mrs. Pickham, Mrs. Plant, Mrs. Dimmock, Mrs. Lewis, and others. The internal management of the hospital since 1872 has been under the control of the Sisterhood of the Good Shepherd.

In that year the Sisterhood transferred their residence from Baltimore to St. Louis, and immediately took charge of the internal management of the hospital. They also have control of the Protestant Episcopal Orphans' Home, which they relinquished in 1874 to establish the School of the Good Shepherd for Girls. This was carried on for three years at 1532 Wash- ington Avenue, and was then removed to 2029 Park Avenue, where it is now. There are now in the order eight full sisters, one probationer, and three asso- ciated sisters.

The present medical staff of St. Luke's Hospital are Drs. H. H. Mudd, junior surgeon ; E. S. Lemoine, J. S. B. Alleyne, John Green, W. L. Barret, W. E. Fischel, M. H. Post, William Porter, R. H. Real- hofer, G. F. Gill.

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ORPHANS' HOME, on Grand Avenue, at the head of Lafayette Avenue,

was organized in 1848 by Rev. Whiting Griswold, rector of St. John's Church. Its first site was the corner of Eleventh and North Market Streets. Its present home was erected in 1873 at a cost of forty thousand dollars, on land given by Henry Shaw. It has endowments amounting to about forty thousand dollars, and provides for about sixty children at a time. Carrie V. Burchard is matron, and Rev. Ben- jamin E. Reed is chaplain.

THE ST. LOUIS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY, AND INFIRMARY FOR DISEASES OF THE THROAT, was incorporated Dec. 23, 1871. It was located at Nos. 1407 and 1409 North Twelfth Street (between ('Fallon Strect and Cass Avenue), and was estab- lished for the gratuitous treatment of all poor persons suffering from affections of the eye, ear, and throat. The dispensary was open daily (except Sunday) from 1 to 2.30 o'clock P.M.

The following gentlemen composed the board of trustees :

James E. Yeatman, president, William G. Eliot, John B. John- son, Albert Todd, Carlos S. Greeley, Henry Hitchcock, William Glasgow, Jr., secretary and treasurer ; consulting physicians, J. B. Johnson, M.D., William M. McPheeters, M.D., T. L. Papin, M.D., John T. Hodgen, M.D., E. H. Gregory, M.D., G. Baumgarten, M.D .; attending surgeons, John Green, M.D., H. N. Spencer, M.D., William C. Glasgow, M.D., Charles A. Todd, M.D.

After being sustained for a couple of years at the site mentioned, the staff discontinued their service as such, and Dr. John Green transferred the infirmary to St. Luke's Hospital, in connection with which it is still carried on.

ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL is one of several enterprises carried on under the fostering care of the Sisters of Mercy, an order established in the city of Dublin, Ireland, by Miss Catherine McAuley. The sisters first came to St. Louis in 1856, and established a school at Tenth and Morgan Streets. As they gained influence and means they undertook other work, and in 1871, at the suggestion of Drs. Papin and Yarnall, they established an infirmary for women and children. This rapidly grew and necessitated enlargement of ac- commodations and extension of facilities until now, besides the main building on the corner of Morgan and Twenty-third Streets, to which they moved in 1861, wings have been erected on each of those streets, and accommodations arc now afforded for one hundred and fifty patients, which can readily be in- creased to two hundred as occasion demands. The medical service is now under the direction of the faculty of the Missouri Medical College, whose fine building on Twenty-third Street and Lucas Avenue is directly connected with the hospital. One wing of

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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.

the building is devoted to male and another to female patients, and different wards are set apart for surgical and medical cases, while there is a considerable num- ber of single rooms which patients can have to them- selves with the privilege of employing any physician whom they may choose. The sisters also conduct a school for poor girls, and an industrial school for chil- dren, and supply lodging for deserving women out of employment. Mother De Pazzi, the Superior, has been with the convent since its organization.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 122

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358