St. Mary's Maternity Hospital and Infant Asylum

Text Source: Syracuse and Its Environs, by Franklin H. Chase, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL, 1924, pg. 495.

St. Mary's Maternity Hospital and Infant Asylum had one hundred and sixty children up to six years of age being cared for in 1923. Some of these children were orphans and others had parents able to pay but part of their expenses. Sister Margaret was in charge of the institution, located at 1601 Court Street. Arthur W. Towne was executive secretary of the Onondaga County Tuberculosis and Public Health Association, organized for the promotion of child health, the prevention of tuberculosis and other health work. Mrs. Della Austin was superintendent of the Syracuse Day Nursery, which looked after the care, food, instruction and recreation of children under seven, whose mothers were employed. This service was from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Another association which was doing important philanthropic work was the Child Health Committee, of which Mrs. Lola Van Derzee was superintendent. That institution had clinics for teaching mothers the care and feeding of infants, as well as pre-natal clinics. There were 13,308 visits made in the year. At East Syracuse was the Public Health Nurses' Association, Mrs. Jennie M. Freeman president. it looked after health work in the public schools, furnished milk to undernourished children and family relief. Then there was Committee for Feeding Under Nourished Children in the city, of which Dr. Joseph C. Palmer was president. That society provided milk daily for three hundred and twelve children in public schools whose parents could not afford to buy milk, besides milk for 2,545 children who paid for it.

Onondaga County Medical Society, 1906-1956, The Onondaga County Medical Society?, Syracuse? 1956, pp. 65-66.

In answer to a summons from Bishop Ludden in 1900, four Sisters of Charity arrived in August of that same year to take over the work of St. Mary's Maternity Hospital and Children's Home. The institution then located on Spring Street was begun about eleven years previous by a noble matron named Mrs. Toohill.

Under the administration of the Sisters, the rapid growth of the work soon rendered the accommodations at Spring Street inadequate for the number of patients desiring admission.

A large building was needed to meet this demand. The Chittenden Mansion with its wide ground space seemed to be just the right thing for St. Mary's purposes and needs, so negotiations were begun to purchase the property. These were finally completed November, 1918. As there were no accommodations for patients in the home, a new hospital and nursery wing was added to the rear of the old mansion. When the wing was ready for occupancy the patients were removed from Spring Street and the old house was abandoned.

St. Mary's stands today a fully established private Maternity Hospital. The hospital offers a bed capacity of 40 patients and 38 bassinets.

Services other than those offered by the Chaplain and Sisters are divided among the Medical Staff, Medical Students, Graduate Nurses, Practical Nurses, Student Nurses, Technicians, male employees, women employees and school-girl aides.

Of recent date another change has come to St. Mary's. At the request of the Provincial Superior of the Sisters of Charity, who explained that the number of registered nurses and hospital administrators in that order was not adequate to supply the growing demands of the expanded facilities at the hospital, His Excellency, Bishop Walter A. Foery of Syracuse, contacted the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, a community devoted exclusively to the care of the sick and dying. In answer to the Bishop's request, on March 1, 1956, these Sisters assumed their duties at St. Mary's; all are registered nurses. It is their sincere wish to continue in the spirit of charity and good-will instilled into St. Mary's by their predecessors, the Sisters of Charity.

Whatever the need, indefinitely or temporarily, St. Mary's will aim to meet it with the same consecrated devotion that his characterized it through the years.

Text Source: A Short History of Hospitals in Syracuse, SUNY Upstate Medical University: Health Services Library: Historical Collections: http://www.upstate.edu/library/history/hospitals.shtml

St. Mary's Maternity Hospital and Children's Home was founded on Spring Street in 1889 by a Mrs. Toohill. In 1900 Roman Catholic Bishop Patrick A. Ludden asked the Sisters of Charity to take over the facility. The Sisters moved to new quarters in the Chittenden Mansion at 1601-1603 Court Street in 1918. United Cerebral Palsy of Syracuse bought this building in 1975. UCP operated a children's clinic, staffed by physicians of the Upstate Medical Center, and other services for the disabled. It changed its name to ENABLE in 1987, and added new services for children and adults with disabilities.

Submitted 14 March 2006 by Pamela Priest
Updated 16 March 2006 by Pamela Priest