Hahnemann Hospital School of Nursing - Hahnoscope Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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received a charter. but effected no organization. and had the name changed to The llahnemann Medical College of l'hiladelphia. This college was opened in the fall of 1867 at 1307 Chestnut Street with 61 students enrolled. ln 1869 the new llahnemann Medical College of l'hilatlelphia, and its parent institution the Homeopathic Medical College of l'hilatlelphia were united under the name of the former: in 1885 this institution merged with the Homeopathic Hospital of Plliladelpltia and first occupied the property on North Broad Street and Fifteenth Street in September, 1886. Thus step by step, learning first to creep, then to walk erect and finally to dash boldly ahead did this infant of homeopathy grow slowly and with great travail into the giant we know today. , It may be interesting also to trace briefly the hospital part of the combined corporation. Wie are told. through tradition, that as early as 1832 a llr. George Bute conducted for some time a small homeopathic hospital on Cherry Street which would make this the first homeopathic hospital in Pennsylvania, but as his institu- tion bore no direct relationship to the present one it cannot be considered as a direct progenitor. The Homeopathic Hospital of l'ennsylvania was the first of its kind in Philadelphia and was organized in .-Xpril, 1850, on Chestnut Street near the Schuylkill River. Two years later financial reverses compelled its closure, and it was succeeded by the equally short-lived Homeopathic Hospital of l'hiladelphia for Sick and XVounded Soldiers. ln 1862 a hospital was opened on Cuthbert Street in conjunction with the previously mentioned college on Filbert Street. In January, 1871, after the merger of the two schools, a fairly well-equipped hos- pital was opened on Cuthbert Street to serve the college. This building was continued until the completion of the then new and fine hospital building in the rear of the college on the present site on North Fifteenth Street. It is of interest to note that at that time we read of the vast sum of 3345834 having been raised to erect the new college and hospital. The next step was in 1890 when a Nurses' Training School was first estab- lished. Then in 1903 work was begun on what is described as a commodious nurses' home, maternity building and power house, at the time considered ade- quate for Hahnemann's present and future needs. Next came the 'lohn Clifford ll

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The History of the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia Contrast, if you will, the small, four-story, white stone building, once a private school and later a meeting place for the Swedenborgian Church, opened on October 16, 1848, as the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania and situated in the rear of 229 Arch Streetg with the 19-story brick and stone hospital sky-scraper which now breaks the skyline of North Broad Street, and proclaims itself as the most modern and largest Homeopathic Hospital in the world-a contrast made possible by 80 years of constant endeavor. Similarly let us contrast two equally different scenes-the first the momentous meeting in February, 1848, when Dr. Constantine Hering, an already famous German scholar, jacob Jeanes, a Philadelphia Quaker, and W'alter XVilliamson, descendant of Pennsylvania pioneers, met at Doctor Jeanes' house to formulate ways and means for establishing homeopathy firmly upon the ripe soil of Phila- delphia, and the other, the brilliantly lighted ball-room at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel when hundreds of workers gathered to pay homage to Samuel Hahnemann -trail blazer and to ignite the Hame of enthusiasm which was to carry forward to a successful conclusion the 352,000,000 campaign for a Greater Hahnemann in 1927. Vastly different as these two buildings and these two scenes are, there lie back of each one the same activating principles-a firm conviction in the efihcacy of the homeopathic healing art, and an unswerving determination that the principles of homeopathy should be permanently and fertilely implanted in this new soil of Philadelphia. ' In September, 1849, the first step toward gleater things was made when the college was removed to more desirable quarters on F ilbert Street between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets. Now the roll showed 55 matriculants as compared with the original 15 the previous year. In 1855 a building and premises on Filbert Street were secured as the third home of the college. The next step took place when in 1867 Dr. Hering and some of his associates secured the charter of the Xilashington Medical College of 1'hiladelphia, which had e 10

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English laboratories, a temporary addition to the college, and now in 1928 the opening of The Greater Hahnemann surpassing infinitely the dreams of those who had planned its predecessors in magnificence, size and equipment. The commodious Nurses' Home has become so inadequate that the old maternity building is now remodeled as an adjunct. :Xnd such is the progress of Hahnemann. just as 80 years ago no one would have dared to prophesy that which to us is an all-too-easily-accepted reality, so who among us will dare to foretell what another four score years will mean to our present Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital. 12