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Charity Hospital
1532 Tulane Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112-2860 |
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Charity Hospital
was founded in 1732 when Jean Louis, a French seaman and merchant who made New
Orleans his home in the New World, died, leaving his entire estate to
"establish and maintain a hospital for the poor people of New Orleans." |
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By the time the Civil War began in 1860, Charity was one of the largest
hospitals in the world, able to accommodate 1 ,000 patients at a time. The
hospital remained open during the war, caring for soldiers from both armies.
Charity Hospital has been such a fact of life in its present location for so
long, that today New Orleanians often think it has always been there and always
been the same. But in fact the hospital has been located in six different main
buildings in four different locations during its 260+ years.
By the early 1930s, the old facility was crowded and out of date. Louisiana's
populist Governor Huey P. Long made it a priority of his administration to
build a fine, new hospital facility that wou1d equal or better any other in the
country.
When the present building on Tulane Avenue was completed in 1939, the total bed
capacity was 3,330, making Charity the second largest hospital in the United
States. It is also one of only a handful that serves the education and research
needs of two medical schools. Tulane University Medical Center flanks it on the
east, and the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center on the west. |
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