Dimock Community Health Center Complex

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Dimock Community Health Center Complex
National Register of Historic Places
National Historic Landmark
The main building in 2009

The main building in 2009

Dimock Community Health Center Complex, Massachusetts
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Boston , Massachusetts , United States
Coordinates 42 ° 19 '13 "  N , 71 ° 5' 57.8"  W Coordinates: 42 ° 19 '13 "  N , 71 ° 5' 57.8"  W.
surface 9  Acres (3.6  ha )
Built 1872-1930
architect Charles Amos Cummings , Willard T. Sears
Architectural style Stick Style , High Victorian Gothic , Utilitarianism , Georgian Revival , Classical Revival
NRHP number 85000317
Data
The NRHP added February 21, 1985
Declared as an  NHL 17th July 1991

The Dimock Community Health Center Complex (historically The New England Hospital for Women and Children ) is an existing total of eight buildings hospital complex in Boston in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . The individual structures were built between 1872 and 1930 in different architectural styles and in 1991 jointly registered as a National Historic Landmark in the National Register of Historic Places .

The former New England Hospital for Women opened in 1861 with a capacity of ten beds on Pleasant Street in Boston and was run entirely by women. In 1864 the company moved to new premises on Warrenton Street until in 1871 sufficient funds were available to purchase land and new buildings on Columbus Avenue in Roxbury . Due to its long history, it is closely linked to American medical history .

architecture

The 3.5 hectare complex consists of a total of eight buildings that were built over a period of almost 50 years.

Cary Cottage

The stick-style building, built in 1872 by Cummings and Sears , is the hospital's oldest and originally housed the maternity ward, which is why it was separated from the rest of the areas to prevent infection. It has a T-shaped floor plan, is three and a half stories high, and is made of wood. The mansard roof with dormer windows is covered with asphalt shingles. The main entrance has a portico designed as a carriage or carriage driveway ( porte cochère ).

Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska Medical Building

Cummings and Sears also designed the hospital's three-story main building, built in 1873. It was designed in a multicolored manner in the style of High Victorian Gothic and has a decorative cornice made of stones and bricks, window arches and a multicolored slate roof.

The construction of the building took into account the theory that emerged at the time that pathogens can spread through the air and that good ventilation must therefore take place. Therefore, there were large halls and open areas, and in addition, the surfaces of all interior rooms were meticulously designed as a flat plane to prevent the accumulation of dirt. Therefore there were no architectural decorative elements or carpets.

Due to this innovative design, the building received an award at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 for the successful combination of “economy, good ventilation and friendly patient rooms”.

Power building

At the end of the 19th century, another round of financing was carried out to build additional buildings. The Power Building was built in 1890 to accommodate a steam boiler system for generating electricity and heat, which was not switched off until 1960 when it was connected to the public grid.

New Laundry Building

This building was also built in 1890 to house a laundry and replaced a previous building that had previously fallen victim to the flames.

Sewall Maternity Building

The Sewall Building , 2013.

In 1892, the Sewall Building followed in the style of the Georgian Revival , which was expanded in 1916 with an extension and served as a new maternity ward. The two-story main part has a hipped roof covered with slate and has two parallel, one-story side wings, which means that this part has a U-shaped floor plan. The two-storey extension closed the side that was open until then and connects the side wings with one another, so that a rectangular inner courtyard was created. The entrance to this part has a classically designed portico, which is surmounted by a Palladian window.

Ednah B. Cheney Surgical Building

This building was built in 1899 to house the operating theaters and was dedicated to Ednah Cheney , who was in charge of hospital administration in 1862. Only fragments are left of the balustrade that once completely surrounded the flat roof of the building.

Goddard Nurses Home

The building, erected in 1909 as a home for the nurses, was designed in the style of the Classical Revival . From the outside, easily visible cornices separate the individual floors from one another. The hipped roof, covered with slate, has three dormers at the front.

Richards Children's Building

This building, also constructed in the Classical Revival style from 1930 to 1931, was the last to be built at the time when the hospital was run exclusively by women, for women. It has three stories and is made of brick and Indiana quarried limestone .

The entire front is dominated by a loggia divided into arcades , above which large balconies and large winter garden windows are arranged, which are separated from one another by fluted limestone pilasters . There is a small penthouse on the flat roof . The building mainly housed patient rooms and operating theaters.

Historical meaning

The aforementioned buildings of today's Dimock Community Health Center are the oldest existing structures of hospitals in the United States, which were operated exclusively by women from the second half of the 19th and into the 20th century and were also intended exclusively for female patients. These represent a special type of hospital in American medical history. The New England Hospital for Women and Children was the first of its kind in New England and the second in the entire United States. The oldest women's hospital in the United States was in New York City , but nothing has survived.

Although women have had access to medical studies for some time, they encountered resistance and problems in gaining work experience in everyday clinical practice. This led to the establishment of special hospitals that were exclusively and in all respects reserved for women. This enabled young female doctors in particular to gain practical experience and to reach the same level as their male colleagues. The great success of these facilities made them superfluous at a certain point, as women were able to gain ever better access to the previously male-dominated hospitals and the mix of female and male doctors became the norm.

The establishment of the hospital goes back to Marie Zakrzewska , who was born in Berlin in 1829 and trained at the Charité , who wanted to create better practice opportunities for herself and other doctors. Together with other supporters of her ideas, who also co-financed the hospital, she founded the New England Women's Club in 1868 , which was one of the first of its kind in the USA.

After a stopover in New York, Zakrzewska joined the faculty of the New England Female Medical College in 1856 , but gave up her position there in 1862 after differences with the institution's founder, Samuel Gregory. On March 12, 1863, she founded her own hospital, the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She was supported by some fellow campaigners who had also left the Medical College out of solidarity with her, which in the end led to Gregory having to close his facility.

Zakrzewska formulated three main objectives for her hospital: "To care for women by competent doctors of the same sex, to offer trained female doctors opportunities for practical work and studies and to promote the training of nurses". Before sufficient funds could be saved and collected to build new buildings, the hospital's premises were spread over several houses in the South End district, but these no longer exist.

From the time of its inception until 1872, the New England Hospital was the only privately operated hospital in town where pregnant women could give birth. In 1873, Linda Richards became the United States' first nurse to graduate from New England Hospital. In 1879, Mary Eliza Mahony, the first black nurse, followed at the same point.

Marie Zakrzewska handed over the management of the hospital to Lucy Sewell, who had completed her practical training with her. Sewell was the daughter of an influential abolitionist and reformer and therefore had great social influence herself. In combination with her excellent medical knowledge, she was able to positively influence the acceptance of the hospital.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the dissatisfaction of the employees of the New England Hospital increased due to the restrictive guidelines and limited development opportunities, especially as the previous strict gender segregation in medicine was increasingly being weakened and new opportunities were opening up for women doctors outside of the former refuge offered. The great success of the New England Hospital also contributed to its decline. By 1910, fourteen medical schools for women in Boston had to be closed due to lack of demand. In the 1950s, the four remaining women's hospitals in the United States opened their staff to male colleagues, but the decline was unstoppable. In 1969 the New England Hospital had to close in its previous form and reopened as a medical care center ( English community health center ).

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Dimock Center  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b cf. Dubrow, p. 7.
  3. ↑ a b c cf. Dubrow, p. 8.
  4. ↑ a b cf. Dubrow, p. 9.
  5. ↑ a b c d cf. Dubrow, p. 10.
  6. ↑ a b cf. Dubrow, p. 16.
  7. ↑ cf. Dubrow, p. 17.
  8. ↑ a b cf. Dubrow, p. 18.
  9. ↑ a b cf. Dubrow, p. 19.
  10. ↑ cf. Dubrow, p. 20.