Text Source: Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga
County New York, by The Rev. William M. Beauchamp, S.T.D., 1908,
pg. 570.
The Syracuse Free Dispensary, now
located at the junction of Warren and East Onondaga streets, was
established September 5, 1888 for the treatment of the poor of the city
who are able to go to the dispensary. Some idea of the work can
be gained when it is said that eight thousand hundred and thirty-eight
treatments were given in 1906. From 1897 to 1900 the Dispensary
was located at 407 South Warren street.
Text Source: Syracuse and Its
Environs, by Franklin H. Chase, Lewis Historical Pub. Co.,
Chicago, IL, 1924, pg. 494.
Free
Dispensary and Its Noble Work.
One night in the summer of 1888 - it
was July 5 - there was a meeting in the office of Dr. John Van Duyn in
South Salina Street, which meant much to Syracuse. Dr. Van Duyn
was health officer, and the idea of the meeting was to see if something
could not be done about furnishing medical supplies and the service of
physicians to residents of the city too poor to pay for such
necessities. That was the foundation of the Free Dispensary, one
of the greatest and most far-reaching of the city's charitable
institutions. Dr. Henry D. Didama, who also assisted in bringing
these men together, was the first president, Charles G. Belden the
vice-president, M. E. Driscoll secretary, and Edward H. Burdick,
treasurer. Upon that first board of trustees were Louis Marshall,
Frederick R. Hazard, Daniel Crichton, W. F. Dunn, William K. Niver,
Amos Padgham, Edward Ryan, E. C. Stearns, C. L. Hoffman, Hendrick S.
Holden and J. S. Wynkoop. The incorporation is dated July 17,
1888.
The first quarters, from 1888 to 1897, were in the old Remington Block,
where the University Building is at present. Then, until 1904,
they were at 407 South Warren Street. Next in the old homestead
at 506 South Warren Street, the Hotel Syracuse site, until 1914, when
they were moved into Dispensary Building at 610 East Fayette Street,
built by the University for this work, but the Dispensary was still
supported by the charitable.
Under the same roof of this unique building at 610 East Fayette Street,
the corner stone of which Chancellor Day laid in 1912, there were
housed several of the public charities having to do with the
amelioration of the physical troubles of mankind. Besides, there
was cooperation with other charitable institutions to make certain of
non-duplication. In the latter part of 1899, there was
established The Clinic and Free Dispensary for Pulmonary Diseases,
believed to be the first in the world. The necessary license was
secured from the State Board of Charities, and D. M. Edwards was the
first president. The Bureau of Health Supervision of the city,
and the Tuberculosis Clinic, with Dr. H. Burton Doust in charge, also a
city department, were located in this building.
Dr. Charles H. Benson, registrar of the Free Dispensary for many years,
reported at the close of 1923, that the dispensary was quick to
register the economic conditions of the city. That year of 1923
showed a decrease of nine hundred and thirty-eight new cases from 1922,
and a decrease of 3,191 old cases, a total fall of 4,129 cases from the
previous year. The new cases of 1923 were 4,915, and of revisits,
22,905. This gives an idea of the work passing through the
dispensary in later years.
While the Free Dispensary is the apex to date of accomplishment in
philanthropy - an institution of the greatest value of the city in
social welfare - a working memorial of the days when dollars for
charity were few and the need so great, there were several
organizations that did much but no where near approached the necessity,
long before the dispensary. There was the dispensary in East
Genesee Street, at one time, but later in other places, of the
Homeopathic Association. Incorporated January 30, 1881, was the
Syracuse Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary. As this was located
for years in the little brick building at 52 1/2 South Warren Street,
later No. 312, occupied by Dr. U. H. Brown, it is a matter of history
that he gave much to it, and, after his death, the work was much
reduced. James J. Belden was its president. Submitted 12 March 2006 by Pamela
Priest
Updated 14 March 2006 by Pamela Priest