Saint Louis City Hospital.

The origins of the St. Louis City Hospital date back to an ordinance of the city council on July 10 1845 to build a municipal tax-supported city hospital for the city's indigent poor. The original building for 90 patients was constructed between 1845-1846 on 8 acres in the city commons bounded by Soulard Street, west of St. Ann Avenue, Lime Street, and Lafayette avenue. Additions were made over the next 10 years. On May 15, 1856, the hospital was destroyed by fire. In 1857, a new building was completed but not occupied until July 1858. During 1873-1874, a large addition was made and additional wards were added in the subsequent years. In 1896, a tornado wrecked the building and three fatalities occurred. From 1896-1905, Emergency City Hospital No. 1 (formerly Convent of the House of the Good Shepherd) was temporary quarters for the hospital at 17th and Pine. Due to overcrowding, the city bought Emergency City Hospital No. 2 or Pius Hospital at 14th and O'Fallon, and it was used for communicable diseases from 1903-1907. Between 1905 and 1907, the ward and hospital administration building by Albert Groves were completed and occupied on Lafayette Avenue between 14th, Grattan and Carroll Streets, (actually four city blocks).

City Hospital was whites only, and only in 1919 did the city offer a separate City Hospital No. 2 downtown to its non-white population. This hospital moved to the north side as the new Homer G. Phillips Hospital in 1937. In 1933, the city began a $5.5. million modernization project at the hospital with funding from the Federal Works Progress administration. Albert Osburg, who designed the Homer G. Phillips Hospital in north city also designed the master plan for City Hospital's renovation. Most prominent of the new buildings was the 13-story Tower (1942). In 1961, the new Snodgras Laboratory Building was added to a group of buildings either entirely remodeled or constructed in the prior 20 years.

Nursing services at the hospital were provided by the St. Louis Training School for Nurses, founded in 1883. In 1915 the City of St. Louis Board of Alderman passed an ordinance providing for a municipal training school for nurses. In July, the St. Louis Training School for Nurses was transferred to the city and renamed the St. Louis City Hospital Training School for Nurses.

The medical staff were city appointees. Until 1910, the superintendent, an M.D., was appointed by the mayor and the assistants appointed by the Board of Health with the consent of the superintendent. Assistant physicians were appointed by competitive examination. In 1910, the city hospitals and dispensary (clinic) department were transferred from the Health Department to the Hospital Department. The Hospital Department consisted of the Hospital Commissioner elected by the Hospital Board and the Hospital Board appointed by the Mayor. Management consisted of a non-medical superintendent for business management appointed by the Board and a visiting staff also appointed by the Hospital Board of every specialty of medicine and surgery.

Before internships and residencies, doctors from medical schools in the area and their students visited City Hospital regularly several times a week. Faculty and students of the St. Louis Medical College and Missouri Medical College, the precursors to the Medical Department at Washington University, visited Saint Louis City Hospital. By 1907, second and third year students of the Medical Department of Washington University came to City Hospital to study gross pathology and conduct post-mortem examinations. Senior students attended at city Hospital weekly clinics in medicine, surgery and nervous system diseases. By 1915, a large number of visiting consultants from Washington University were appointed by the city upon nomination by Washington University. At some point prior to 1961, medical staff consisted primarily of faculty of the schools of medicine of Washington University and St. Louis University. Few private physicians were left in the city. On June 30, 1980, the Washington University medical service under John Vavra pulled out of St. Louis City Hospital and care taken over by St. Louis University. Dilapidated facilities, lack of city funding for better programs, and a $25,000 ceiling on salaries was the cause. Other medical services such surgery, neurology and obstetrics still had staff and students from Washington University. However in 1985, the city closed city hospital on Lafayette as it had closed Homer G. Phillips Hospital six years before (1979). Sources: Those Hospital days, 1911, p. 21; "Hospitals," Hyde's "History of St. Louis", 1899, v. 2, 1051-1052; FPOO5, "St. Louis City Hospital: affiliated with St. Louis University School of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine." house staff prospectus, ca. 1970; "Tragic truths of the indigent Ill," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sunday, June 29, 1980, p. 3C; Ecology of absence, A Short History of Homer G. Phillips Hospital by Michael R. Allen, Posted February 22, 2005; Ecology of absence, A Short History of the City Hospital by Michael R. Allen (michael@eco-absence.org); Washington University School of Medicine (or Medical Department) catalogues, 1899, 1907, 1916, 1926, 1936.

From the description of St. Louis City Hospital collection, 1861-1911. 1861-1911. (Washington University in St. Louis). WorldCat record id: 229151417