The prevalence of
fever among the immigrants who had come to Troy during the
famine in Ireland between the years 1845 and 1848, compelled
the city authorities to erect temporary buildings for their
care and treatment. Sometimes as many as two hundred sick
persons were thus sheltered. The afflicted people were mostly
Roman Catholics, and the Rev. Peter Havermans daily visited
and ministered unto them the means of physical relief and
spiritual comfort. Their distressing circumstances suggested
to him the need of a city hospital, and he undertook the collection
of funds with which to erect one.
His
efforts were successful, and a site was obtained on south-west
corner of Fifth and Washington streets. On Wednesday afternoon,
August 15th, 1848, the corner-stone of the Troy Hospital was
laid by General John E. Wool of the United States Army. The
four-story brick building, when completed in 1850, was used
for the purposes contemplated; a number of Sisters of Charity
taking charge of the institution.
After
the construction of the Union Railroad, the site became unsuitable
for a hospital. In April, 1866, the property of Ebenezer Prescott,
on the east side of Eighth Street, at the head of Fulton Street,
was purchased by the managers of the Troy Hospital, for the
site of a new building. The corner-stone of the four-story
brick structure was laid on Sunday afternoon, June 28th, 1868,
by the Right Rev. J. J. Conroy, bishop of Albany. In the fall
of 1869, the old hospital was vacated and the new one occupied.
The institution is (was) still in charge of the Sisters of
Charity, who latterly have had the care of as many as eight
hundred patients within a year. The attendance, appointments,
and charges are in every way satisfactory and advantageous.
Notes
from Bill McGrath:
Note 1:
Some rooms in the Troy Hospital were used staring in 1848
for the orphans cared for by St. Mary's Female Orphan Asylum.
In 1865, the asylum changed their name to St. Vincent Female
Orphan Asylum and in May 1872 they purchased the old Troy
Hospital on Washington and Fifth Streets.
Note 2:
The Troy Hospital is mentioned in a number of the death notices
for my family members.
Note 3:
The Troy Hospital building on Eighth Street later became the
home of Catholic Central High School until about 1953. I started
my Freshman year there in 1952 and later that year or early
in 1953, the school relocated to the Cluett and Peabody laboratory
building in Lansingburgh where it remains today.
Note 4:
The former Troy Hospital and Catholic Central High building
is now part of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus.
On the 45th reunion of the Class of 1956 in 2001, we had a
cocktail party there and a tour of our old school building.
Note 5:
Rev. Peter Havermans was the first pastor of St. Mary's Church
in Troy from it's opening in 1843. When this book was published
in 1891, he was still the pastor.