St. Joseph’s Hospital
Life Span: 1871-1964
Location: Garfield Avenue and Burling Street
Architect: Henry I. Gay
- Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1874
St. Joseph’s Hospital.—Sophia cor. Burling. Under charge of Sisters of Charity. Sister Servant, Sister M. Walburger
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1876
St. Joseph’s Hospital.—Sophia cor. Burling. Under charge of Sisters of Charity
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1884
St. Joseph’s Hospital.—Garfield av. cor. Burling. Conducted by Sisters of Charity. Sister Mary Cephas, sister-servant.
Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
St. Joseph’s Hospital.—360 Garfield av. Surgeon in charge, N. Senn M. D. Conducted by Sisters of Charity.
In October 1871, while St. Joseph’s Hospital was under construction, the city suffered from the Great Chicago Fire. The new hospital building was spared and served as a shelter for many of the fire victims.
- St. Joseph’s Hospital
1900
Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1872
ST, JOSEPH’S HOSPITAL.
The New Edifice to be Opened for the Reception of Patients To-Morrow—Description of the Building.
The new St. Joseph’s Hospital, located at the corner of Burling and Sophia streets, will be opened for the reception of patients to-morrow. This fine building has been in process of construction since last summer, the walls having risen nearly to the roof when the October fire came on. It has been built under the superintendence of Mr. Henry I. Gay, who furnished the plans. It is of brick, with trimmings of Kankakee sandstone. It presents a handsome front, in the secular Gothio style; but the whole symmetry of the building is not developed at present, as the plan requires the addition of heavy transverse wings, which will not be erected immediately. The dimensions of the completed portion are 95 feet front by 50 feet in depth; the wings to be 30 feet by 125, with a central wing 30 feet by 80—this last to be used as a chapel, with refectory underneath. The hospital is four lofty stories in height, beside the basement. The first, second, and third stories are occupied chiefly as wards and single rooms for patients, with the dries, kitchens, with the necessary offices, laundries, and other auxiliaries. There are accommodations at present for one hundred patients (of whom about twenty may occupy separate rooms), and this capacity of the Hospital can be readily doubled, in case of emergency, without crowding the patients. Every room is furnished with hot and cold water, and every ward with seperate bath rooms and water closets. The wards are numerous, so that no ward is required to accommodate more than about a half a dozen patients. Every room is completely ventilated according to Leed’s system, the apparatus being very elaborate and efficient. Each floor communicates by dumb waiters and by chutes for linen and for dirt, etc., with the kitchen, laundry, and other departments below. There is also provision made for a steam elevator. Around this elevator runs the main staircase, which, with the spacious halls, constitutes imposing and attractive features of the edifice. Along the rear of the building, on each floor, are verandas. The halls and other principal rooms are finished in hard wood, On the top floor is a spacious lecture-room, designed principally for the use of medical students, so that clinics may be conducted within the building. The cost of the whole, thus far, has been about $45,000. The force of Sisters for carrying on the hospital has recently been augmented through the efforts of Sister Walberger, who is in charge, and who has lately returned from Emmietsburg, with reinforcements..
- St. Joseph Hospital Ward
1890
1891 Guide to Chicago
Located on Garfield ave. and Burling St., near N. Halsted St., North Side. Take Garfield ave. or N. Halsted car. Conducted by the Sisters of Charity. Sister Mary Cephas, superior. Old residents of Chicago will remember Providence Hospital, in Lake View. It was an unpretentious frame structure in a place rather remote, at that time, from the city, but it was the most suitable which the means of the Sisters of Charity could compass when they took up their hospital work in Chicago in 1869.
By unceasing effort, however, a more desirable location was secured, and in 1871 the present St. Joseph’s Hospital was erected on Garfield avenue (then Sophia St.) The site is peculiarly suitable for the purposes of the institution, being in the highest and dryest portion of the city and having all the advantages of proximity to Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park. The sanitary advantages of the hospital have well supplemented the skill and care of the excellent staff of surgeons and physicians in charge. The surgeons in charge are—Prof. Chas. T. Parkes and Dr. C. W. Johnson. The physicians in charge are—Dr. Geo. W. Reynolds (obstetrician and diseases of children). Prof. D. R. Brower (mental and nervous diseases). Dr. J. E. Hequembourg, Prof. F. L. Wadsworth (consulting physician) and Dr. Robert Tilley (diseases of eye and ear).
The hospital is fitted with all the latest improvements for ventilation, heating, etc., and has accommodations for two hundred patients in wards and private rooms. Of the latter there are fifty, tastefully decorated, thoroughly comfortable, with the most approved furnishings and abundantly supplied with light and air. The wards are also models of neatness and comfort and so carefully have the interests of the sick been provided for that open fireplaces have been placed in each ward. The building is heated by steam. The schedule of prices is so arranged that all classes of patients can be accommodated and avail themselves, at reasonable rates, of the superior advantages of the hospital. Physicians whose names are not on the staff have the privilege of attending patients in the private rooms. Parents of children suffering from chronic medical or surgical diseases requiring prolonged treatment can arrange to leave them in the care of the institution.
The out-patient department provides for the treatment of all persons presenting themselves at the hospital office, and includes the same wide range of treatment as the hospital proper. Persons without means are made welcome to the advantages of this department. Of the tenderness and care with which the sisters of charity treat all persons, of whatever degree, committed to their charge, it is hardly necessary to speak. The unremitting attention, the more than sisterly solicitude, the constant vigilance and the unselfish devotion of these noble women, in the service of the afHicted, has won for them the warmest respect and admiration of people of all creeds the world over.
- St. Joseph’s Hospital
1890
The Saint Joseph School of Nursing, which was affiliated with De Paul University, opened on the Burling Street property. By 1894, inpatient and outpatient services in the hospital included surgery, medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiac care and eye, ear, nose and throat treatment. Some 1,504 nurses graduated from the school prior to its Burling Street closing in 1964.
- St. Joseph’s Hospital
Garfield and Burling Streets
Robinson Fire Map
1886
I was born in the hospital Nov 1947. Is there a picture of it during that period?
There is no doubt that photographs exist in the period you are looking for. However since Chicagology is a historical research project describing buildings using period sources. So unless there was a significant reason for searching a specific period during a structure’s life span, no further research was needed.
When I was in high school. I worked part time at St. Joseph Hospital in 1963-64, both at the hospital on Burling Street and then at the new hospital on Lake Shore Drive. Great memories.