Baltimore's Historic Hospitals, Part I (1770-1850)

Earlier this year, I taught a class called "Baltimore's History Through Its Buildings" and one of the sections was about Baltimore's historic hospitals. 

I have illustrated this lecture with both historic and contemporary photographs, engravings, and paintings from MedChi’s collection of historic portraits.

Name: Bayview Asylum & Almshouse                    Year Founded: 1773

Founded in 1773, the "Baltimore County and Town Almshouse for the Impoverished", was initially located half a mile west of the city, however, the expansion of the city resulted in a number of relocations. Drs. Clendenin and Cole were two of the early almshouse physicians.

In 1820, the facility was moved to the Calverton mansion, the country home of banker Dennis A. Smith. Calverton was used until 1866, when the institution made its final move to the east side of the city and the name was changed to Bay View Asylum because of its close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay. The elderly and disabled inhabitants of the Baltimore almshouse were outnumbered by the able-bodied poor who performed compulsory labor at the institution.

It housed both the impoverished and mentally ill. During the mid-1880s, William H. Welch, the pathologist of Johns Hopkins, began seeing patients as part of his research, creating the first major connection between the asylum and Johns Hopkins.

Its transition to a hospital began in 1925 when it became a hospital for acute and chronic care, as well as a tuberculosis hospital and renamed Baltimore City Hospitals. In 1984, the City of Baltimore transferred ownership of the Baltimore City Hospitals to Johns Hopkins Hospital, which renamed it the "Francis Scott Key Medical Center." In 1994 the name changed to the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, in efforts to convey its strong connection with Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Name: Home of the Friendless                       Year Founded: 1798

The Female Humane Associated Charity School was founded when a group of women banded together to assist widows and their children suffering in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. Over the years, it merged with other organizations, including the Female Orphaline Charity School, Baltimore Female Orphan Asylum, the Home of the Friendless and finally the Baltimore Orphan Asylum. It moved around the city from Calvert Street to Mulberry Street to Stricker Street to Druid Hill Avenue.

Children were given an elementary English education, and girls were taught cooking, sewing, laundry and housework, so as to find suitable positions as servants. Boys were taught the trades, such as woodworking, carpentry and simple math and reading.

In 1926, a property on Woodbourne Avenue, known as Marble Hall, was donated by the Abell family. The house had been the summer home of philanthropist Enoch Pratt and was known as Tivoli. In 1965, the name of the organization was changed to Woodbourne, which remains to this day, and it provides psychiatric services for youth with behavioral and emotional issues.

Name: Hawkins Point Hospital                       Year Founded: 1800

Baltimore has been a port city for all city for all of its existance, and from the beginning, one thing that the city wanted to do was prevent diseases carried on ships from infecting the citizens. A hospital was established at Hawkins Point, close to where the Key Bridge was located, so ships could stop and their crews could be given a health check. Anyone who was not deemed to be healthy was sent to the “Quarantine & Pest Hospital of the Port of Baltimore.”

Lazaretto Point, just across from Fort McHenry was a smallpox quarantine hospital in the early 1800’s. Lazaretto seems an unusual name for a hospital in the American colonies. As it turns out, the word would become a common English term for isolation facilities and quarantine hospitals, ceasing to be a proper noun at all.

Dr. Francis Donaldson was the only physician at the Marine Hospital who escaped an epidemic of typhus which swept the hospital in 1848.

Name: Baltimore General Dispensary           Year Founded: 1801

Over the years, there were a number of dispensaries in Baltimore, but the Baltimore General Dispensary was first to open in 1801, providing medical and health services to the poor in Baltimore. It was founded by Dr. James Crawford, who was also the founder and most active member of the Maryland Society for Promoting Useful Information (something which I’d love to join!).

The Daughters of Charity were extensively involved in many hospitals over the years, dating back to 1823, in answer to a call to staff the Baltimore Infirmary. Many members of the Faculty were closely associated with the Baltimore General Dispensary over the decades, including Ashton Alexander, whose family gave their name to Alexandria, Virginia.

The Baltimore General Dispensary was one of a number of dispensaries scattered through the city, some standing alone, and others associated with a hospital. Funds to support this Dispensary came from the State lottery, concerts, and “Fines imposed by the Sheriff's office on persons keeping houses of ill-fame.”

In 1959, a decision was made to sell the Dispensary building and establish a foundation which would grant money to the city and hospitals for the free distribution of medicine at out-patient clinics.

Name: College of Medicine in Maryland                Year Founded: 1807

On December 18, 1807, the Legislature passed a bill creating the College of Medicine in Maryland. However, this would never have happened without the work of several members of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, including Dr. John B. Davidge. From the Annals of Medicine, published on our centenary in 1899, “The founding of this college, the forerunner of the University of Maryland, emanated from and owes its existence directly to the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty.”

However, it was almost over even before it started! Dr. Davidge owned a building on Liberty Street, near Saratoga where he began instructing students in anatomy. He “procured a subject” and began classes. Prejudice against dissection by the general public was great and they were bent on destroying the building and its contents, and lit it on fire. However, professional physicians had the opposite reaction. They rallied to Davidge’s support, found another building, collected funds and secured the necessary legislation to allow dissections to continue.

The story doesn’t end there! What is now Davidge Hall was built in 1814, conveniently right around the corner from the Westminster Burying Ground, and there are stories about the medical staff procuring cadavers from the newly dug graves! Story about John Davidge.

After several mergers, the College of Medicine in Maryland became the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Name: Washington Medical College/Church Home     Year Founded: 1835/1854

Originally founded as the Washington Medical College in 1835 and later merged with St. Andrew’s Infirmary. Dr. Horatio Gates Jameson was the head, along with five other physicians.

Dr. Jameson was in a feud with another member of the Faculty, Dr. Frederick E.B. Hintze. Jameson’s colleagues were jealous of him, and one, Dr. Hintze published a pamphlet disparaging Dr. Jameson’s surgical skills, so Jameson sued. He was awarded $50, but Hintze assigned away all of his property so not to have to pay Jameson.

Edgar Allan Poe was taken to this location when he was found semiconscious and ill in a street gutter near East Lombard Street. This is where he subsequently died in October of 1849. Among other things, it is suspected that he died of rabies.

The building was purchased in 1857 by the Episcopal Church and renamed Church Home & Infirmary. Patients were required to present a certificate indicating that they were free from mental diseases before they would be treated.

The hospital closed in the early 2000s and the buildings are now used by Hopkins.

Name: Baltimore College of Dental Surgery              Founded: 1839

Between 1819 and 1825, Dr. Horace Hayden delivered a series of lectures on dentistry to medical students at the University of Maryland. In 1839, the dental school was chartered by the Maryland State Legislature as the first dental school in America, as there was a need for systematic formal education as the foundation for a scientific dental profession.

Dr. Hayden was a renaissance man, founding the Maryland Academy of Science, and serving as President. He was a geologist and botanist and published the first general book on geology in the USA. He also discovered a new mineral, named Hadenite in his honor.

For many years, the Dental School was located on Eutaw and Franklin Streets in the beautiful Charles Fish building. The interior of the upper floors (the spaces used by the College and called Infirmary Hall) remains almost entirely intact, retaining the original stair and balustrade, door and window architraves, interior shutters, and plaster cornices and medallions.

The present dental school evolved through a series of consolidations the final taking place in 1923 when BCDS and the Dental Department of the University of Maryland were combined to create a distinct college of the university under state supervision and control.

Name: Mount Hope Retreat for the Insane           Year Founded: 1840

Mount Hope was a private, Catholic institution founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1840. It was designed by the architects Long & Powell. In 1843, Dr. William H. Stokes became the supervisor of Mount Hope Retreat, located just north of Baltimore City on 300+ acres in a rural setting. He held that position for more than 40 years. Mount Hope was an atypical mental hospital – it was open and bright, and used non-restraint methods of care and a cottage plan for residents.

There was an infamous trial against Dr. Stokes and the Sisters of Charity alleging “false and injurious representations as to the management of an Insane Asylum,” assault and false imprisonment of several residents. 

The lengthy trial came to an abrupt end when the State said that it was “…unable to sustain the indictment under the evidence offered. From beginning to end, an utter shame and disgrace…” Dr. Stokes, whom the State had sought to brand as a liar and conspirator, was a gentleman of the highest personal and professional character whose life had been dedicated to the treatment of diseases of the mind.

The current four-story building, with a two-story chapel, was built in 1911. In 1940, it was renamed the Seton Institute. It closed in 1973 and the land was sold to the city for an office park.

Stay tuned for Part II (1851-1900)