University of Oregon School of Nursing - Lamp Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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as st. smgaai ,, ! COMMUTERS' Bus, D8. LINDSAY MCARTHUR AT WHEEL Kiddies' tonsils and adenoids were snared without anesthetic. One winter, an average of eight smallpox cases was seen daily. The disease was very prevalent and the men contracted it from each other from their close association in the saloons of the neighborhood where many slept on the floor. Many inebriates came to the clinic and frequently one suddenly developed d. t.'s in the waiting room, startling the entire time-abiding assemblage with whooping and shouting. Still the patients came. ln the fall of 1911, an energetic man from Rush Medical College in the person of Dr. Richard B. Dillehunt joined the faculty as Professor of Anatomy, and in the following year, Dr. K. A. j. MacKenzie succeeded the retiring Dr. S. E. josephi as dean of the institution. The new dean was a man of vision and a prominent Portland physician. He was well aware of the plight of the school whose leader- ship he had just assumed and resolved on expansion and improvement. lt was toward this end that he secured the donation of twenty acres atop Marquam Hill to serve as a future campus for our patient, but thereby hangs a tale. lt was in the year 1883 in an eastern city that a group of directors of the O.-W. R. 81 N. Railroad were sitting around the conference table. They were in need of a site for machine shops and a depot for their projected new line from Portland to The Dalles. They placed their lingers on a map of Portland, pointing to a tract in the southwestern part of the city which was as yet unoccupied, and authorized its purchase. Imagine their surprise when they came to town to inspect their new ug-,,,,,:' E461

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school lor the practical training ol its students. The appointments of this new department could certainly be called modest, without undue exaggeration. lt had had its beginning two years before as an outgrowth of the Peoples lnstitute, a philanthropic organization located on liourth and Burnside streets in the center of what was as near to slums as Portland ever had. The lnstitute had organized clubs as activities lior the poor people, and it was the Mothers' Club and the Cwirls' Cooking Club ol? the Peoples lnstitute that gave a beneht bazaar and dinner to raise funds to start a clinic. The proceeds piled up to 1530. The janitor made a table. :X few medicines were purchased, and the clinic was declared open for patients. Two appeared for treatment the very nrst day. l-lfowever, it was dithcult to get good doctors to come down to see the free patients. l-lence, they welcomed aiiiliation with the medical school and from then on, the school regularly sent their physicians to the clinic. Students were allowed to come voluntarily for instruc- tion until three years later when attendance was made compulsory. Between forty and titty patients were now being seen in the clinic daily. Miss Valentine Pritchard was in charge of the work from the very start. For the Hrst four months of its existence, the clinic boasted a trained nurse, but she- had to leave temporarily and was replaced by Mrs. Etta McOmber until the nurse might return. That was thirty years ago. The nurse has not yet returned, and Mrs. McOmber has not yet been relieved of duty. lwACKENZlE HALL, 1924 ! i , at -1-1 ' lun sn0V E451

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acquisition and were shown Nlarquam lflill! A few years later, one of the cityis substantial citizens. an eminent and successful barrister named judge Marquam, bought 298 acres on the crest ol' the hill from the disillusioned' railroad. I-lere he built his home and a farm and laid out 'the rest into a subdivision which he called the Portland City l-lomestead. l-lis subdivision was nearly as successful as the railroad s plan since no city light, gas, water or suitable transportation was avail- able. Now Dr. llflaclienzie had been company doctor for the O.-W. R. 81 N. and was in personal acquaintance with their board of directors. lt was through this old contact that he persuaded the railroad to donate twenty acres of their land in l9l4 for use as the medical school campus. Our patient had somehow clung with a weakening grip to its class A rating, whereas the Willamette Medical department, now removed to Salem, had slipped to class Cv. Not for purposes of striking an average, our patient now absorbed the Willamette school. lt was about this time that our patient began having joint trouble, especially with the joint on Fourth and Burnside. There had been considerable swelling in this joint. The meager facilities of the People's Institute, though generously enlarged, were no longer adequate to accommodate the clinic patients. Accord- ingly in l9l6, the clinic was moved to a building at Fourth and jefferson streets and became known as the Portland Free Dispensary. A trained nurse was again added to the staff and the volume of patients grew. One day an elderly newsie MULTNOMAH COUNTY HOSPITAL on ZND AND HOOKER, 1910 U D a i og 3' Sui