Medical Center Buildings
Submitted by chh4011 on February 19, 2016 - 10:21am
Medical Center Highlights
Departmental Timelines
The New York Nursery and Child's Hospital was founded in 1910, through the consolidation of the Nursery and Child's Hospital and New York Infant Asylum. Buildings were maintained at Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, and at Amsterdam Avenue and 61st Street, until 1913, when the Amsterdam branch was expanded and the Lexington branch was closed.
The Nursery for the Children of Poor Women opened in 1854 on St. Mark's Place, specifically to care for the children of wet-nurses and of parents who worked away from home during the day. Originally, its purpose was to aid "worthy" working women, and proof of marriage and good character of the mother were required for admission of her children. Rates charged were a percentage of the mother's income, and any child not picked up at the end of the day was sent to the city's Alms House.
The New York Infant Asylum opened its doors at 106th Street in 1865, to provide care for foundlings and abandoned children. By 1871, when it moved to 24 Clinton Place, its function had expanded to include a lying-in department and child-care training for mothers. By 1873, most of the asylum was moved to 61st Street and Amsterdam Avenue, leaving only a House of Reception downtown, which closed in 1879. The first country branch of the asylum opened in Flushing in 1872 and existed until 1881, with a second opening in Mount Vernon in 1878.
The New York Hospital has always recognized the importance of training nurses. In 1799, Dr. Valentine Seaman founded a course of training for nurses, that continued until his death in 1817. In 1877, shortly after New York Hospital moved to West 15th Street, the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses was established. Upon joining the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in 1932, the name was changed to the New York Hospital School of Nursing. The school then became the Cornell University-New York Hospital School of Nursing, a unit of Cornell University, in 1942.
New York Hospital was the oldest hospital in New York City, and the second oldest hospital in the United States, second only to Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, founded in 1751. The history of New York Hospital is intimately related to the history of New York City. At the first graduation exercises of the medical school of King's College, held in Trinity Church in 1769, Dr.
The New York Asylum for Lying-In Women was founded in 1823 to provide care for "destitute respectable women in confinement". It shared in the operation of a ward at New York Hospital, until its withdrawal in 1825 to separate facilities on Greene Street. In 1830, the institution moved to 85 Marion Street, known then as Orange Street, where it remained until its move in 1885 to 139 Second Avenue.