An interesting fact about hospitals: they were originally
established to care for the poor. That
seems strange to us, I think, because in the twenty first century United States
so many people can’t afford to go to a hospital when they need to. Nineteenth century hospitals were established
to provide care for those who could not afford for a physician to come to their
home and often these same physicians donated their time and services in the hospital
setting to care for those who were destitute.
In Buffalo, New York, the first public hospital was
established by the Sisters of Charity at the request of Bishop Timon in
1848. Just a year later, the one hundred
bed facility was incorporated as the Buffalo Hospital of the Sisters of
Charity. While the hospital was owned by
Catholics, it was open to all individuals, regardless of religious affiliation.
The establishment of hospitals was just another aspect of
the growing conflict between Protestants and Catholics during this time. Just prior to the advent of the Sisters of
Charity Hospital, a group of Protestant physicians had formed the Hospital
Association Board in the hopes of establishing a facility of their own to serve
the poor and to act as a teaching platform for the recently established Medical
Department at the University of Buffalo.
Multiple attempts to secure funding failed largely due to squabbles
between local physicians and the Buffalo Hospital of the Sisters of Charity
remained the only public hospital in the city for a decade, although the
Protestant physicians were reluctant to consider a Catholic hospital as a
public institution, particularly one that was run by women. Efforts to fund a “real public hospital”
continued and Buffalo General Hospital was finally incorporated in 1855.
Both of the public facilities provided care for the
chronically ill rather than those with acute infectious diseases. Although the Sisters of Charity did treat
cholera cases, a separate hospital was needed during the epidemic years. Recall that various period publications made
reference to the Cholera Hospital, but did not provide specific details. With a little help from my friends, I learned
that “the old stone house on the beach” also described as “the brick house on the
ravine” was then known as the McHose House, an abandoned tavern between what
is now Niagara Street and Prospect Avenue.
It was established as a cholera hospital by Dr. Ebenezer Johnson, the
first Mayor of Buffalo. Dr. Johnson also
initiated the first Board of Health during the 1832 cholera epidemic.
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| City of Buffalo, 1849 |
My attempt to
identify the location of McHose House on the map, has, once again, lead me in
the direction of more questions than answers. Three separate publications indicate that McHose House was located between Niagara Street and Prospect Avenue (the blue dot on the map
above). Looking at the 1849 street map
of Buffalo, Prospect Avenue was called Ninth Street. It appears that the Cholera Hospital was not
far from the original Erie County Poorhouse (the red dot). The description of “on the beach” hardly
seems to fit this location. However, if
one follows Niagara Street down toward Genesee Street, it intersects with
Hospital Street (the yellow dot), but sadly, is no closer to the water.
Hospital Street, hmmm…
In 1849, the only public hospital was Buffalo Hospital of the Sisters of
Charity, which was located on St. Louis Place, near St. Louis Roman Catholic Church
(not seen on this map). The Cholera
Hospital, although not near a beach or a ravine, was apparently located
near the poorhouse. The 1849 street map
of Buffalo indicates a street called Hospital Street (interestingly, it is also
shown on the 1835 map), but the only known public hospital was across town. So, the question of the week is what hospital
was Hospital Street named for if the locations of the only existing hospitals
are already accounted for?
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