The Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital was established in 1868 by prominent Brooklynites as a philanthropic clinic. Its first president was Simeon B. Chittenden, and E.R. Squibb, the founder of Squibb & Sons Drug Company, was a trustee. The hospital building was erected at 190 Washington Street and opened on April 20, 1869. In the early 1880s, increasing demands for patient space necessitated the purchase of the Juvenile High School building at 100 Livingston Street. The Livingston Street property deteriorated rapidly, however, and was also too small to house new staff absorbed from the Hospital's consolidation with the Williamsburgh Hospital in the 1920s. In 1930, a larger and improved building for the Eye and Ear Hospital opened on Greene Avenue.
The Depression caught the Hospital at a time when it had large construction costs that originally were to be offset by selling its original property and some of the Williamsburgh Hospital lands. However, when land prices plummeted in the 1930s, very little of that money was realized. Financial difficulties continued to plague the hospital until it was eventually forced to close its doors in 1976.
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Sources:
- Baehr, Harry W.
A Hospital's First Century: Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital, 1868-1968. Brooklyn, N.Y.: The Hospital, 1968.
From the guide to the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital records, 1868-1976, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
