USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 22
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ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL.
the treatment of the delirious or noisy. The buildings have accommodations for over two hundred patients, and have cost, with their furniture, about $225,000. A rear building con- tains the apparatus for heating the whole edifice with steam, the cooking, washing, and drying being performed by the same agent. A fan ten feet in diameter for ventilating the Hospital is also driven by the same machinery, capable of discharging 40,000 cubic feet of air per minute. The same machinery carries the water to the tanks in the attic, from whence it is distributed through the building. The projector of the Institution early conceived that its usefulness would be much promoted by placing its wards under the charge of a band of Christian women. Under his own pastorate such a band had originated in 1845, known as the "Sisters of the Holy Communion," being the first community of Protestant "Sisters of Charity " in this country. They were accordingly fitted for the undertaking. The donations of a few wealthy friends enabled the Sisters in 1851 to erect a dwelling suited to their use adjoining the Church of the Holy Communion ; and in 1854 the building adjoining their own was rented, and converted into an infirmary, with fifteen beds. Here the work of St. Luke's Hospital began, and more than two hun- dred patients were treated ere the opening of the Institution on Fifty-fourth street. The Sisters have had charge of the hospital since its opening, attending to its multiplied toils with scrupulous exactness through all these years, with no financial compensation. Even their apparel is furnished by an arrangement of their own, so that nothing but board is received at the Hospital. No vows bind them to their work nor to each other. It is a voluntary association of unmarried Christian females, somewhat akin to the Lutheran Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, so well known in the hospitals of Germany and Prussia. The Hospital is conducted on the principle of a family. The Superintendent, who is also the chaplain, sus- taining the relation of father, and the lady superior that of mother, to the inmates. One of the Sisters has charge of the drug department, and saves the Institution annually the wages of an apothecary.
The ministrations of the gospel, according to the forms of the : Protestant Episcopal church, are daily attended to. Scriptures and prayers are read in each ward every morning, and a service is conducted every evening in the chapel, when the doors leading into the long wards are thrown open, and
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
the large organ breathes forth its melody. The regular church service with preaching is conducted every Sabbath morning, and in the afternoon the chapel is thrown open to the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who attend in large numbers upon the preaching of the Word.
About eight thousand patients have been treated since the opening of the Hospital, a small fraction of whom only were able to pay their own bills.
More than thirty beds are now supported by a permanent endowment of $3,000 each, and over a score more by annual subscriptions of from two hundred to three hundred dollars each. The board of the patients was long held at four dol- lars per week, but has since been increased to seven dollars for adults, and four dollars for children.
St. Luke's Hospital, situated in a central and wealthy neighborhood, with its beautifully cultivated lawns and ele- gant surroundings, if managed with the courtesy and skill that have hitherto characterized it, will long continue one of the finest institutions of the city.
NEW YORK HOSPITAL.
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New York continued for many years without any adequate accommodations for its sick and disabled citizens. Though its original city charter was granted in 1686, no serious effort appears to have been made toward providing a public hospital until 1770. The population of the city at that time amounted to over twenty thousand. In that year a number of enterprising citizens liberally signed and circulated a subscription for this purpose. On the 13th of June, 1771, the governor of the colony, under George III., granted a charter, in which he named the mayor, the recorder, the aldermen and their assis- tants of the city, the rector of Trinity Church, one minister from each of the other denominations then in the city, the president of King (afterwards Columbia) College, and several other prominent citizens, as members of the corporation. Twenty-six governors were also named for the management of the business of the society. The original charter title was the "Society of the. Hospital in the City of New York in America," but by an act in 1810 the name was changed to the " Society of the New York Hospital." Through the efforts of two eminent English physicians, Drs. Fothergill and Dun-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
can, numerous contributions to the funds of the society were made by persons of London and elsewhere. The following year the provincial Legislature granted it an allowance of £800 ($2,000) per annum for twenty years. Highly encouraged with these prospects of revenue, the governors, in 1773, pur- chased five acres of ground in the outskirts of the city, and be- gan the erection of the edifice. On the 27th of July, 1773, the foundation stone was laid; but on the 28th of February, 1775, when the structure was nearly completed, it was accidentally destroyed by fire. This sudden misfortune inflicted upon the society a loss of overseventeen thousand dollars, and would have entirely paralyzed its efforts had not the Legislature come to its assistance with a grant of $10,000. The toil of rebuilding began amid the outbursts of the Revolutionary war, and con- tinued until the capture of New York by the British, Sep- tember 15, 1776. For seven years it was, in its half-fin- ished condition, occupied by British and Hessian troops as barracks, and occasionally used as a hospital. Independence having been secured, work was resumed, and on January 3, 1791, it was so far completed that eighteen patients were ad- mitted. Its colonial revenue, of course, ceased with the breaking out of hostilities, but in 1788 the Legislature directed that $2,000 per annum for four years be paid to it from the excise funds. The funds of the society were now rapidly increased by donations from private citizens, and liberal grants from the Legislature. By an act of 1792, $5,000 per annum were granted; in 1795 the sum was increased to $10,000, and the following year to $15,000; subsequently it was made $22,500, which amount was paid annually until 1857. An act of 1822 exempted all the property of the so- ciety from taxation. Arrangement was made with the United States Government in 1799, which continued until recently, whereby sick and disabled seamen in this port were received, and paid for by the Collector of Customs, at the rate of seven dollars per week.
The Hospital stood until recently on its original site, which is the most elevated and eligible one on the lower part of the island. Its grounds, which were handsomely laid out and- ornamented with choice shrubbery, covered an entire block. They are bounded by Broadway on the east, Church street on the west, on the north by Worth, and on the south by Duane streets.
The central Hospital was a large convenient building of
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NEW YORK HOSPITAL.
gray stone in the Doric order, with accommodations for two hundred patients, besides the numerous rooms appropriated to business, visitors, surgery, medicine, the resident officers, and servants. In 1806, in answer to a growing and general desire, a new building termed the South Hospital was erected for the treatment of insane patients, and devoted to this use until 1821, when this branch was removed to Bloomingdale. After the removal of the insane patients, this building was devoted to the treatment of seamen, and termed the Marine Department. In 1853 it was torn down, and a splendid hos- pital erected on its site at a cost of $140,000, with accommo- dations for 250 patients. In 1841, on the opposite extreme of the grounds, had been reared the North Hospital, with accommodations for 100 patients. From the time of open- ing this Institution, in 1792, to 1856, it is said that 106,111 patients were admitted, of whom 77,390 were cured, 4,768 relieved, and 10,893 died. The majority of the latter were brought in from the streets in a dying condition. In 1857 the annual State appropriation of $22,500 ceased by statute limitation, after which the Legislature occasionally responded to the urgent appeals of the governors with greatly reduced appropriations, nothing being granted after 1866. The city government refused any aid, and private donations and be- quests were also withheld, through a determination to force the governors to lease or sell the valuable grounds around the Hospital. During these years, with the rapid increase of our population, the number of casualty patients correspondingly multiplied. This Hospital, situated so near the crowded cen- tres of the metropolis, had always had the larger number of these unfortunates, no one of whom was ever rejected, and but few of whom were able to pay, however long and expen- sive might be his treatment. The pay patients were also re- ceived at little more than half the expense of their support. The result was that after the withdrawal of the State annuity the governors found their finances continually embarrassed and annually growing worse and worse. In 1864, with much effort $80,000 were raised by subscription to relieve the over- burdened treasury, but 1868 left it still : in debt about $100,000. About that time the governors decided to lease the grounds and remove the Hospital. In March, 1569, the grounds occupied by the main building and North Hospital were leased, and in May the patients were removed to the South Hospital, where operations were continued until Feb-
L
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
ruary 1st, 1870, when the old New York Hospital entirely suspended. A line of majestic business houses already covers most of the premises. The rent of these grounds, when all are leased, will probably amount to $200,000 per annum; yet it is saddening to see this time-honored Institution, where Dr. Valentine Mott devoted his best attentions forty-eight years, and where a hundred and fifty thousand patients have been treated, crowded into obscurity, when the suffering pop- ulation needs its accommodations more than ever, because more numerous than in bygone years. It is probable that another hospital will be opened by the society somewhere, but no plan has yet been agreed upon. The hospital library and pathological cabinet rank among the finest of the world, and are annually receiving valuable additions. The library contains 8,431 volumes. The office of the society is at No. 13 West Eleventh street.
HOSPITAL OF SAINT FRANCIS.
(East Fifth street, between Avenues B and C.)
HIS Hospital was founded by the " Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis" (an order of Roman Catholic females whose mother house is in Germany), in 1865, and in 1866 the Institution was duly incorporated.
A brick edifice, fifty feet wide and four stories high, was purchased in East Fifth street and converted into a hospital, where their operations were conducted until the present sum- mer. Lots adjoining this building were purchased in 1869 at a cost of $35,000, and a four-story brick structure, with a front of sixty-six feet, was completed last May, at an expense of over $40,000. After entering the new building, the Sis- ters proceeded to demolish and rebuild the old structure immediately adjoining, in the style of the new building, though they were heavily in debt on the portion of the struc- ture just completed. A small building situated on East Sixth street, immediately opposite and connected with the old building, contains the patients of extreme age. With . the completion of the buildings the Sisters expect to have wards
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SAINT VINCENT'S HOSPITAL.
for over two hundred patients. Most of those admitted thus far have been German or Irish, though persons of any na- tionality are received. The great feature of the Institution is. that it proposes to be free to nearly all patients admitted. The eighteen Sisters not only propose to do all the labor of the Hospital with their own hands, but to beg from door to door the money to build and support it. This Hospital, though young and unknown to most of our citizens, has received from the Legislature from $5,000 to $7,000 per annum. It is situated in a section of the city where, on the present terms, it is certain to be well patronized, and may be a useful Insti- tution. Two of the Sisters go out incessantly to gather funds and supplies. They claim to have treated eight hundred patients annually, thus far, but as they have as yet issued no annual report, precise information in relation to the Institu- tion is not easily obtained.
SAINT VINCENT'S HOSPITAL.
(Corner of Eleventh street and Seventh avenue.)
HE society for the founding of this Institution was organized in 1849, and the Hospital opened the fol- lowing year. On the 13th of April, 1857, it was duly incorporated by act of Legislature, under the legal title of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. It was first established in Thirteenth street, in a three-story brick building so arranged as to accommodate thirty beds. It needed but a short time to make known the existence of such an institution ; and very soon these accommodations became insufficient to meet the increasing demand. The building adjoining was then rented and fitted up, and room was there- by secured for seventy beds. For a few years this proved sufficient, but as the Institution became more widely known, even this was found inadequate, and a larger building became a necessity. Accordingly, the present Hospital, situated on the corner of Eleventh street and Seventh avenue, then known as the Half-Orphan Asylum, was rented and fitted up. This
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
building required extensive alterations and repairs, and was also soon found too small. In 1856 the Sisters held a fair in the Crystal Palace and realized the handsome sum of thirty- four thousand dollars. Their treasury being thus replenished, they purchased two adjoining lots, and erected a large wing to their building. In 1860 a Floral Festival was held in the Palace Gardens, and a sum of nearly twelve thousand dollars was realized. The same year an adjoining lot on the opposite side of the main building was purchased, and another wing erected. The Hospital is situated on high and dry ground, in a comparatively retired and quiet portion of that thickly- populated part of the city. It is three stories high, with base- ment, presenting a front of one hundred and fifty feet on Eleventh street, the grounds extending through to Twelfth, furnishing an ample rear yard for the exercise of convales- cents. The Hospital now contains one hundred and fifty beds, with space for more if circumstances should so require. It is divided into five well-regulated wards, besides which there are several well-furnished private apartments for the use of persons who require special accommodations or care.
To clergymen or other persons stopping at hotels, or to strangers of means, overtaken suddenly with disease, these rooms offer peculiar advantages, combining the comforts of a home with the advice and treatment of the Hospital.
The operating theatre connected with the surgical ward is on the third floor of the left wing, the room being furnished with a fine skylight in addition to the ordinary windows. The entire management of the Institution is conducted by fifteen of the Sisters, no female help being employed, and no male except the Board of Physicians, and a nurse in each of the male wards. The entire edifice is heated with steam, and watched over with scrupulous tidiness in every part, though on account of its piecemeal construction it is sadly wanting in that general design which facilitates labor in its management.
The design of the society at its organization was to make it a self-supporting Institution; hence it existed several years without any legal incorporation, or asking any grants from the city or State. But the multitude of charity patients that annually knocked at its doors induced the managers to recon- sider and finally change the nature of their enterprise.
In 1863 the Common Council granted.the Hospital $1,000, in 1864, $1,000, in 1865, $2,000, in 1867, $2,000, in 1868,
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SAINT VINCENT'S HOSPITAL.
$3,000. The Board of Public Charities, in 1867, also gave it 81,000. The last Legislature gave it $5,000. In 1868 the Sisters purchased the main building of their Hospital, which up to this had been leased. The entire expense of their build- ings and grounds has exceeded seventy thousand dollars, upon which there remains an indebtedness of $25,000 se- cured by bond and mortgage.
Mr. Charles Gibbons, several years since, generously pre- sented the society with an endowment contribution of $5,000, and it is quite remarkable that no wealthy Roman Catholic of the country has undertaken to increase the amount.
The Institution is, of course, distinctly Roman Catholic in its management; pay patients are, however, taken from any denomination, and allowed to receive the visits of their own spiritual advisers, though the stated services are always con- ducted by a Romish priest.
Patients were admitted for many years at three dollars per week, always paying one month's board in advance, and free beds were granted associations and clubs for $120 per an- num. But the greatly augmented cost of carrying on the In- stitution, occasioned by the war, led them to increase the price to six dollars for males, and five for females per week, and the cost of a free bed to $175 per annum. Many charity patients are still admitted. In 1859 and 1860 over two hundred of this class were admitted, whose average sojourn was six months, at an expense of over twelve thousand dollars to the Institution. During 1869 nearly two hundred and fifty were treated gratuitously. Since the founding of the Hospital, twenty-two years ago, over thirteen thousand patients have received treatment within its walls. The larger portion of those who have died have been afflicted with pulmonary com- plaints.
It may be doubted whether any hospital in the land is con- ducted on more strictly economical principles. The Sisters serve for life, with no expense to the Institution save board, the mother house, St. Vincent's Convent, furnishing their ap- parel. The dispensary is even conducted by one of the Sis- ters, thus saving the usual salary of an apothecary. The pub- lished report of 1860 showed the amount of wages paid for the year to have been $894, and the year closing with 1870 to have been $2,420.24. The self-imposed penury and patient continuance in unrequited, life-long toil, and sleepless vigi-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
lance for the advancement of the interests of "Mother Church," by many Roman Catholics, notwithstanding all their errors of faith and practice, present a sublime anomaly in the history of the world, and are eminently worthy of imitation.
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GERMAN HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY.
(Seventy-seventh street und Fourth avenue.)
Until recently, the hospitals of New York have been largely patronized and controlled by citizens of foreign na- tionalities. Hospitals are much more common in Europe than in this country. London alone contains over fifty, many of them of a general character, averaging about three hundred beds each. Americans, for the most part, prefer to be treated at home, even in extreme cases ; but Europeans resort to the hospital when overtaken with slight illness. The hospitals of Europe often treat both the in-door and out-door patients. hence the thoughts of an invalid are naturally turned toward the hospital. It is this carly education that has prompted so many foreigners to plan for a hospital soon after taking up their residence in an American city. "The German Hospital of the City of New York" was incorporated by the Legisla- ture April 13th, 1861, and its first board of directors was organized February 15th, 1862. A subscription, opened in 1561, slumbered through several years. The treasurer's report shows that up to 1865 less than $14,000 had been received.
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
The subscriptions of 1866 exceeded $53,000; of 1867, $36.000 ; and of 1868, $28,000. A plot of ground situated on Fourth avenue and Seventy-seventh street was leased to them by the city authorities for fifty years, at a nominal rent, and the directors purchased six additional lots on Seventy-sixth street. The plan at that time was to erect two fine pavilions, extending along Seventy-seventh street, from Fourth to Lex- ington avenues, with an administration building between them. The corner-stone of the western pavilion was laid September 3, 1866, and the edifice so far completed that the building committee transferred it to the board of directors October 28, 1868. The expenditures of the enterprise at that time hav- ing far outrun its income, the edifice could not be used until the heavy indebtedness could be removed. In the beginning of 1869 the directors, still burdened with debt, and seeing no prospect of receiving large donations, despaired of ever carry- ing through the original plan, and accordingly sold the six lots formerly purchased on Seventy-sixth street. The $25,800 thus received .enabled them to cancel their most pressing obligations, still leaving a debt of $20,000, and the Hospital unfurnished. At this critical moment, Mr. H. E. Moring vol- unteered to undertake another collection, and with much per- severance succeeded in raising over $11,000, with which sum eighty complete beds and -the other furniture were obtained. On the 13th of September, 1869, the Hospital was finally opened for the uses for which it had been erected, since which a large number of patients have been treated. The edifice is a beautiful, three-story brick, with French roof. The stories are high, well ventilated, heated throughout with steam, and con- tain one hundred beds. The whole is divided into six wards and five private rooms. The directors were last year very agreeably surprised by receiving the princely gift of $50,000 in United States bonds, from Baron Van Diergardt, a noble German philanthropist. This sum has enabled them to can- cel all their indebtedness, leaving $40,000 in the treasury. They now propose to repurchase the lots so recently sold, or obtain others, and proceed with the erection of the other buildings so greatly needed, as the inconveniencies of the present building originate in the fact that all parts of the ad- ministration are crowded into what is but a part of a well-con- sidered plan. The incompleteness of the Hospital appears from the fact that the present building contains no kitchen of sufficient size, no separate room for a pharmacy, no room for
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GERMAN HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY.
surgical instruments, no suitably arranged operating theatre, no rooms sufficiently separated from the inain building for patients giving symptoms of contagious disease. All these prerequisites are provided for in the general plan. Patients are admitted regardless of color, creed, or nationality. From .the time of opening the Hospital until October 1, 1870, 739 patients were admitted, of whom 82 died, 600 were dismissed. and 57 remained. Of those admitted, 300 were treated free, 19 paid in part, and 420 paid in full.
In 1866 the German Dispensary previously established was by an amended charter united in interest and manage- ment with the Hospital. This continues at its old location, No. 8 Third street. During 1870 it dispensed medical aid to 15,000 patients, and to about the same number the year pre- vious. About one-third of these were of American birth, and nearly eight-ninths of the remainder were from Ger- many. The college of physicians connected with this dis- pensary have collected the best library of medical periodi- cals in the United States.
The German Hospital and Dispensary are conducted by learned and skillful physicians, and with the completion of their new buildings are certain to take rank among our best institutions.
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MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL.
(Lexington avenue and Sixty-sixth street.)
The many thousand Hebrews of New York took no distinc- tive part in the hospital accommodations of the metropolis until about twenty years ago. The act of Legislature by which the Jewish Hospital was incorporated bears date of January 5, 1852. About that time Sampson Simson, a wealthy Hebrew, donated a lot of ground in Twenty-eighth street, near Eighth avenue, and the society purchased an ad- joining lot and erected the handsome brick Hospital, still in use, at a cost of nearly $35,000. The corner-stone of the structure was laid with appropriate exercises in the presence of a large concourse of citizens on the 25th of November, 1853, and the Hospital opened for the reception of patients amid much rejoicing on the 17th of May, 1855. One hun- dred and thirteen patients were admitted the first year.
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