This exhibit will highlight the origins of the many area hospitals. From its early years right up to the present, Rochester has been a leader in medicine. The founding of the Rochester City Hospital in 1847 by the Rochester Female Charitable Society and leading business and community leaders began the start of Rochester a leading center of medicine in western New York.
The three following stories chronicle the development of the major medical institutions in and around the greater Rochester Area.
This chronicles the origins of Rochester's oldest hospitals and many of its private and specialty medical institutions. In particular, the Rochester City Hospital, now the Rochester General Hospital, Saint Mary's Hospital on Genesee Street , Monroe Community Hospital, Rochester State Hospital, Hope Hospital, that became the Municipal Hospital, The Infants Summer Hospital and its present embodiment as Crestwood Children's Center, Park Avenue and Park Ridge Hospitals and the origin of the University of Rochester Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital.
This article will introduce the city’s earliest hospitals. It is my hope that by remembering these institutions in this forum, we continue to honor the past service of the individuals who served the people of Rochester, in these hospitals, as well as the present generation who continued to serve this community.
The origin of medical care in Rochester can be traced back to the early days of the nineteenth-century when Rochester was America’s newest “Boom” town. Dr. Jonah Brown was the first physician to settle in Rochester around 1813. Over the following two decades, Rochester grew rapidly as the center of commerce in Western New York. The first recorded community institution where medical care was offered was organized in 1826 on South Avenue as the Almshouse. The Almshouse was created in response to the increase in population and in particular, the communities poor, who came to region to find work on the Erie canal or one of the many commercial interests that were created in response to the economic growth brought about by the Canal and the milling industry.
The growth in commerce resulted in increased population and along with the influx of canal workers, merchants, and migrants moving west came communicable diseases such as cholera, malaria, scarlet fever, and small pox. The rise in deaths and illness from disease and poverty prompted a group of Rochester’s women to form the Rochester Female Charitable Society in 1822 to expressly serve the community’s poor. A quarter-century later it would be this organization of women aided by a group of community and business leaders who petitioned the State officials in Albany for a hospital charter. Granted a charter in 1847, it would take another twelve years to convince the community of its necessity and raise the necessary funds to begin construction on what would become the Rochester City Hospital. Opening on January 28, 1864, the City Hospital was located on the grounds of the former Buffalo Street Cemetery along what today is West Main Street. The hospital began its long service to Rochester by treating wounded Civil War soldiers and would continue to serve up to the present. In 1911 the hospital changed its name to Rochester General Hospital to more accurately reflect its mission of providing a wide range of medical services. The twentieth-century was a time of prodigious growth for the hospital serving through two World Wars and evolving into one of the country’s foremost Cardiac hospitals.
In September of 1857, three nuns of the Catholic Daughters of Charity order established St. Mary’s Hospital in a couple of one room stone stables located at the intersection of Genesee Street and West Main Street. In 1857 the Bishop of Buffalo - Rochester diocese, Bishop John Timon, attempted to raise interest in establishing a permanent hospital in Rochester. His previous attempt had failed but was successful in securing the help of two men from St. Patrick’s parish. Doctor Thomas Bradley and Mr. Patrick Berry chose the site for the hospital and the diocese purchased the site for $1,300.00 and on September 8, 1857, the hospital was established. Bishop Timon requested from the Daughter’s of Charity of Emmitsburg, Maryland three sisters to staff the hospital. They arrived shortly after the opening and they were Mother (Sister) Hieronymo (Latin for Jerome) O’Brien, Sister Martha Bridgeman, and Sister Felicia Fenwick. These ladies, along with the members of St. Patrick’s parish went to work organizing the structures and on September 15th the first patients were admitted.
The hospital under Sister Hieronymo’s leadership quickly improved and expanded to meet the challenges confronting it. In 1859, the large three-story East wing was constructed on Genesee Street and four years later in 1863, the permanent main hospital was opened on the north-west corner of West Main Street. The U.S. Government called on communities to aid in treating wounded soldiers in the summer of 1861 as the country was shaken by the opening clashes of the Civil War. St. Mary’s Hospital began receiving wounded soldiers in 1861 and would eventually be designated as a U.S. General Hospital in 1863. Over the four years of the war, both Rochester City hospital and St. Mary’s treated wounded federal and confederate soldiers but it was St. Mary’s hospital that would hold the designation as an “Official U.S. Army General Hospital” and cared for 2,500 soldiers.
The late nineteenth-century was a time of great progress in the nation as well as here in Rochester. On the Night of February 15, 1891, a fire destroyed the majority of the main building, the Chapel, Women’s Ward, Surgical Ward, and many private rooms. The community came to the aid of the hospital and raised the necessary funds to rebuild the hospital on its site facing West Main Street. This building would be replaced in 1943 with the present structure facing east on Genesee Street. The decades witnessed the hospital continue to expand and evolve to meet the needs of the community. In 1892 the Training School of Nurses opened, the Maternity Department was established in 1903, and the Out-Patient department began in 1923.
In 1996, the hospital was awarded the prestigious Foster G. McGaw prize for Community Service. Two years later, St. Mary’s aligned with Park-Ridge Hospital to form the Unity Health System and consequently, its mission was changed to focus on full-time out-patient services. Today, St. Mary’s Hospital remains a valued member of Rochester’s medical community.
In 1826, Monroe County established an Alms house to care for the growing population of poor in the community. The beginning of construction of the Erie Canal in 1817 attracted many skilled and unskilled laborers in search of jobs. The increased commerce and competition for work fueled the rise in poverty and the indigent. By the late 1850s, a separate wing was constructed to house the mentally insane and the steady increase in patients precipitated the construction of a separate building on South Avenue. This new facility was named the Monroe County Insane Asylum.
The rising concern over the care of the mentally insane prompted the New York State legislature to pass legislation that provided the funding of state hospitals to care for these patients. In July of 1891 the Monroe County Insane Asylum’s named was changed to the Rochester New York State Hospital.
The Almshouse on South Avenue remained the sole caregiver to the communities poor until the establishment of St. Mary’s and the City Hospital.
By the early twentieth-century, over crowding and concerns over fire safety prompted the county government to construct a full sized hospital. The new facility, named the Monroe Community Home and Infirmary, was located at the corner of Westfall Road and East Henrietta Road and opened on August 1, 1933. Its medical focus was the care and rehabilitation of the chronically ill. Between the 1930s and 1950s, the institution primarily served as a General Hospital, providing medical, surgical, maternity, pediatric, and dental care for the impoverished. In 1967, the name was changed to the Monroe Community Hospital for the Care of the Chronically Ill to better reflect its shift to treating the elderly population. Around 1968, the name was shortened to Monroe Community Hospital. The hospital remains today as an important health care provider in the Rochester Community.
In the years after the civil war leading up to the First World War, many private and specialty hospitals were established to serve specific groups of patients. Rochester hosted a municipal hospital and several private hospitals that specialized in the treatment of children, the mentally ill, and patients of contagious diseases. The first of these began as a group of buildings behind St. Mary’s Hospital and eventually become part of the Strong Memorial Hospital.
What would become Hope Hospital was first referred to as the “Pest House” and was used for the quarantine of patients with infectious diseases. It was located on Clifton Street behind St. Mary’s Hospital. Its primary use was to quarantine contagious disease patients, such as soldiers suffering from smallpox after returning from the Civil War. The premises were inspected by members of the Board of Aldermen of the City of Rochester in 1868 and found it to be “a disgrace to the city, and is inadequate to the wants of the sick.” The report of the committee recommended the purchase and establishment of a new facility south of the city. Later that year, a location behind the Mount Hope Cemetery along the Genesee River flats was found suitable for the new hospital. Originally known as the Rapids Hospital, but by December 1868, the name was changed to Hope Hospital. The location consisted of a 40 year old, two-story farm house and two erected wards capable of housing 16 patients. Its location on the east side of the Genesee River was susceptible to flooding and had only one shallow well as a water source and was closely situated beside the Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks. The location is presently occupied by the University of Rochester River campus.
The first full-time Rochester City Health officer described the new facility as “a two-ward and one-room, sixteen bed hospital with one water tap in the kitchen, without a sewer, an old, partitioned privy in back labeled ‘Ladies”, “Gents’, a two-room, battered, unpainted shack for isolating suspects and an old grocery wagon for an ambulance- the horse had to be rented.” Later it would be outfitted by a single telephone. Rochester’s Health Officer, Dr. George W. Goler, remarked that it remained inadequate for its purposes until its relocation in first years of the new century.
The small-pox epidemic of 1902-03 precipitated the expansion of the hospital to combat the gradual increase of patients. The deplorable conditions prompted the addition of many tents, improved sanitation, and better administrative management to combat the influx of patients. By the spring of 1903, plans for a new municipal hospital north of the city eventually resulted in the burning of remnants of the Pest House at Hope Hospital.
The new location of what was now called the Rochester Municipal Hospital was at the intersection of Culver and Waring roads on the present location of Frederick Douglass Junior High School. It was opened in 1903 with 100 beds as an isolation hospital contagious diseases, primarily tuberculosis. It operated at this location until 1926 when a new 300 bed municipal hospital was constructed adjoining Strong Memorial hospital on Crittenden Blvd.
An investigation into claims of abuse and mismanagement of the Hope Hospital was convened in February 1903 by the Public Safety Committee of the City Common Council. Charges of neglect and incompetence were directed at the City Health Officer, Dr. Goler and his assistant and administrator of Hope Hospital, Dr. William M. Barron. The final report of the committee called for the dismissal of Goler and Barron, but the political climate of the city prevented their dismissal. Supporters of Goler and the Health Department argued that Goler had called for better facilities and adequate funding before the epidemic but was ignored and the health department did the best they could with the resources provided them by the city government. Dr. Goler would continue and have a distinguished career as the City Health Officer retiring in 1932.
The growth of multiple community hospitals and the advancement of medicine ultimately forced the closing of the municipal hospital and it would eventually be absorbed into the Strong Memorial Hospital in the 1960s. Another hospital that specialized in the treatment of children began as a collection of tents along Lake Ontario’s shore.
In the summer of 1887, the rise in infant deaths and children’s disease from contaminated wells, stagnant sewers and poor sanitation prompted the establishment of the Infant’s Summer Hospital on the shores of Lake Ontario. The hospital was formed by Doctor Edward M. Moore, M.D. on Beach Avenue in Charlotte and primarily for children up to the age of 15 years. Initially, the patients were housed in tents in the hopes that the better circulation of “healthful Lake Breezes” would reduce the deaths from diseases. It is now thought that the increase in infant deaths were the result of improper pasteurization and refrigeration of milk.
By 1890, the hospital expanded its service to children by including care for patients with long-term convalescent care from conditions such as malnutrition and rheumatic heart. The improvised tent city was replaced with the construction of a wooden structure starting in 1892. The hospital continued to grow with the generous support of the community. Around 1913, $100,000 was raised for the construction of a permanent structure for the Infant’s Summer Hospital at 425 Beach Avenue. This building remains today as the Shore Winds Nursing Home on Beach Avenue.
By 1928, the hospital’s name was changed to the Convalescent Hospital for Children due to the improved condition in urban sanitation and the expanded scope of its medical care. That same year the hospital extended its months of operation to year round in response to the needs of the community. In 1959, the CEO of the Genesee Brewery, John Wehle, donated land on Scottsville Road for a new facility and construction began. The hospital was moved to its present location on Scottsville road in 1960. In 1991, the name was changed again to the Crestwood Children’s Center. The name Crestwood symbolizes the bridge between the past and future: “Crest” represents being on the cutting edge and “wood” symbolizes the past built on strength and security. Today, Crestwood is an affiliate of Hillside Family of Agencies in Rochester. The next hospital in this brief chronicle continues today as Unity Hospital in Greece New York.
The origin of Park Avenue Hospital began in 1894 when Dr. John F.W. Whitbeck, a respected Rochester Surgeon and physician at the Rochester City Hospital, commissioned the construction of a three-story brick building on the south-west corner of Park Avenue and Brunswick Street. The twenty-five bed hospital operated for about ten years before closing due to financial insolvency. The building that was referred to as Dr. Whitbeck’s Hospital was converted into a private school for boys in 1904 by J. Howard Bradstreet. Mr. Bradstreet’s school lasted until 1907 when the school was relocated and the building was purchased from Dr. Whitbeck by Dr. Charles R. Barber who, after remodeling, opened the renamed 40 bed hospital as the Park Avenue Hospital in 1908.
That same year, the Park Avenue Training School for Nurses was chartered by the state and graduated its first class of Nurses three years later. The school remained in operation until 1949. Many of the graduates remained at Park Avenue Hospital and other local hospitals during their nursing careers.
In the late 1940s, the Rochester Regional Hospital Council’s plan for hospital development called for the consolidation of Park Avenue and Rochester General Hospitals, with Park Avenue’s Staff being shifted to the New Proposed North Park Hospital. Over the next few years, administrative disagreements led to a corporate merging of Rochester General and North Park Hospital Corporations without Park Avenue Hospital. Rochester General would complete the project alone, culminating with the opening of the Rochester General Hospital’s Northside Division on Portland Avenue in 1956. Referred to as “Northside Hospital”, this campus remains today as the Flagship of Rochester General Health System.
Park Avenue Hospital continued to grow and serve the community until June 7, 1971 when the Rochester Regional Hospital Council and the Health Council of Monroe County authorized the closing of Park Avenue Hospital and the restructuring of the New hospital named Park Ridge Hospital in the Northwest section of Monroe County in Greece. Park Avenue Hospital ceased admissions on August 27, 1975.
The new Park Ridge Hospital opened in 1975 and continues to serve the community as part of the Unity Health System. In 1997, Park Ridge joined with the St. Mary’s Hospital of Rochester to form Unity Health System and in 2006, Park Ridge Hospital was renamed Unity Hospital marking its 90th year of operation.
The last hospital in this retrospective came about as a result of a 1910 report by Abraham Flexner on the state of medical schools in the nation. Flexner’s findings identified the need for a new approach to medical education. A decade later, Flexner approached the president of the University of Rochester, Dr. Benjamin Rush Rhees with the idea of establishing a medical center at the university that would be based on three principles: The new facility would incorporate scientific inquiry through dedicated research, it would be an institution of learning for the medical students, and it would serve as a community hospital. Together, Flexner and Dr. Rhees approached Rochester’s philanthropist and founder of Eastman Kodak, George Eastman, with the idea of supporting the innovative project. With Eastman’s support, additional financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the daughters of Henry Alvah Strong, the University of Rochester Medical Center was founded in 1921. The medical school opened in 1925 and Strong Memorial Hospital opened the following year as a 250 bed community hospital.
The University of Rochester Medical Center at Strong Memorial Hospital continued to grow over the years and has earned a reputation as a leader in medical research and trauma care in the region. Today Strong operates a 739 bed care center and is consistently ranked as one of America’s Best Hospitals in U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey.
The history of the medical profession in Rochester is founded upon the legacy of the community's past caregivers and the development of these early medical institutions. Although the practice of medicine has changed over the years with the advancements in science and technology, the outstanding reputation and success the present hospitals enjoy is a direct result of the service, dedication, and expertise of the physicians, nurses, administrators, and support personnel of Rochester's early hospitals. - Bob Dickson
This Research and article is dedicated to the late Rev. Robert F. McNamara, long-time historian and archivist for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.
Rochester is well known for its contribution to nineteenth-century social reform through the efforts of individuals such as Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, but another distinction of its history is as a major center in nineteenth-century homeopathic medicine. In the nineteenth-century, the practice of medicine became divided into various schools of thought. The two major schools were the traditional practice of Allopathic medicine and the other being Homeopathic medicine. Whereas Allopathy treats the symptoms of an illness, such as an antibiotic for an infection or pain medication to relieve pain, and is based in science, Homeopathy is the practice of treating the cause of the illness, (rather than the symptoms), with natural remedies that would produce similar symptoms in healthy patients. The underlying premise is that the body’s natural systems fight disease rather than the use of drugs.
Homeopathy is age old principle based on the “Law of similars.” This fundamental principal is the belief that “Like is cured by like.” Although the German physician Samuel Christian Friedrich Hahnemann is credited with “discovering” homeopathy, ancient Hindu sages described its laws in the tenth- century B.C. as well as by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates in 400 B.C. The word Homeopathy comes from the Greek words homoios (“similar) and pathos (“suffering” or “sickness”). The law of similar states that a remedy can counteract a negative symptom, if it produces in a healthy person symptoms similar to those of the disease.
Rochester hosted an active homeopathic medical community which led to the establishment of several Homeopathic hospitals. The first of which was the Rochester Homeopathic hospital founded in 1887. The founding of the homeopathic hospital came about as a result of the efforts of several of Rochester’s leading homeopathic physicians led by Dr. Charles Sumner and civic leaders such as Mrs. Hiram Sibley, Mrs. Don Alonzo Watson, and Silvanus J. Macy. Sumner chaired a committee of homeopaths including his son Charles R. Sumner, John Mallory Lee, Theodore C. White and Edmund H. Hurd and in whose purpose it was to determine the practicality of forming a Homeopathic hospital in Rochester. A large group of concerned citizens led by the wives of two of the community’s best known business leaders, Mrs. Hiram (Elizabeth) Sibley and Mrs. Alonzo (Caroline) Watson helped propel the effort to form a homeopathic hospital in the eastern side of Rochester. Past efforts by the medical community to establish a homeopathic hospital by its leading proponents had failed up until an incident where Mrs. Sibley witnessed a women slip and fall on the ice outside her East Avenue home. Realizing that the only hospital in the city where the women could receive medical care was at the City hospital on the western edge of town, convinced her that the east side of the city needed its own hospital and she committed herself to helping to establish one and on May 25, 1887 the charter for the incorporating the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital was granted. The three-story brick structure at 233 Monroe Avenue opened to the public on September 19, 1889. Nine weeks later, the first students of the Homeopathic Hospital Training School for Nurses were admitted and began their education as Nurses.
The Hospital would have a long history of service to the community. Its first major expansion happened in 1894 when it relocated to the former resident of the Rochester Congressman Freeman Clarke at 224 Alexander Street. The hospital continued to grow to meet the needs of the community. In response to the evolution of modern medical science and its overwhelming acceptance and practice in the medical community, the hospital changed its name to The Genesee Hospital in 1926.
The hospital continued to grow and meet the needs of the community through the war years into the 21st century. The ever evolving state of healthcare and the competitive medical industry ultimately contributed to the Genesee Hospital eventual closing in 2001. Over its one hundred and twelve year history, the Genesee hospital earned a reputation as an outstanding healthcare institution and will be remembered for many years to come.
Another of Rochester’s homeopathic hospitals was the Hahnemann Homeopathic Hospital which today is the Highland Hospital. The origin of this Hospital came about as a result of a schism between the “Fundamental Homeopaths”, known as Hahnemannites and the more eclectic homeopaths that predominated Rochester Homeopathic medicine. A small group of homeopaths led by Dr. Joseph A. Biegler believed the liberal practice of homeopathy had strayed away from the pure “Hahnemann Principles” that were based on the writings of the 18th and 19th century German physician Dr. Samuel Christian Frederick Hahnemann. The homeopathic method stresses the treatment of disease by administering minute doses of a pure natural remedy for treatment is illness. By this time the more progressive practitioners of homeopathy had begun administering certain drugs such as opiates or and other “non-natural” substances as remedies and the disagreement in principles formed a wedge in the homeopathic community. This division caused several “faithful Hahnemannites” to secede from the Monroe County Homeopathic Society and bring about the opening of what was described as the first hospital in the world to follow uncompromisingly “pure homeopathic methods.”
The Hahnemann Homeopathic Hospital opened in April 1889 at the former home of Judge Henry Selden on what is now Rockingham Street. Over the years the hospital had the support of many local benefactors. Where the Homeopathic Hospital was partly founded and supported by members of the Hiram W. Sibley family, the Hahnemann hospital received generous donations from the other local Sibley businessman, Rufus A. Sibley founder of the Department store. Another charitable donor was Mrs. Maria Eastman and her son George. The Maria Eastman District Nurse made her visits to the community and was funded by George Eastman until the Community Chest was set up after the First World War.
The hospital would continue to grow and meet the needs of the community in times of calm and calamity. By 1921, the two schools of medicine, the Homeopathic and what was known as allopathic gradually merged into what is known today as the science of medicine. This prompted the change of the hospital’s name to the Highland Hospital due to its location on the edge of Highland Park. Two physicians that were instrumental in both the Homeopathic and Hahnemann Hospitals branched off and established private homeopathic hospitals.
John Mallory Lee was a native of Steuben County, New York. After having graduated from the University of Michigan medical school in 1878, he opened his medical practice in Rochester later that same year. Lee’s reputation in the Homeopathic field grew quickly in the years following his graduation from the University of Michigan medical school, which had become one of the leading institutions of homeopathic medicine. In 1877, Lee decided to specialize in surgery and after completing post-graduate study he returned to Rochester and quickly established himself as one of the imminent surgeons in Rochester. He was a founding member of the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital and its Training School for Nurses. He held many prominent positions at the hospital such as Vice-President of the Medical and Surgical Staff and Surgeon-in-Chief. Doctor Lee’s early success would foreshadow his professional ambition.
Lee established the Lee Private Hospital at the corner of Lake and Jones Avenues on January 9, 1898. For the next twenty-eight years the hospital operated as a surgical, obstetrical and medical hospital and incorporated a Training School for Nurses. Doctor Lee’s was a skilled and well-respected surgeon and his early work with radium for the treatment of cancer led to the opening of a free cancer clinic on Fridays in the 1920s. The institutionalization of medical facilities and the regulations imposed by state and federal mandates would contribute to the eventual closing of many smaller private hospitals. Doctor Lee’s death in January 1926 became the catalyst that transformed the Lee Private Hospital into the Lake Avenue Hospital two years later.
Charles Teresi was a staff physician at Doctor Lee’s hospital at the time of his death. After graduating from the University of Buffalo medical School and then serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he established a private practice at 413 North Street in Rochester and wishing to expand, bought the Lee Private Hospital in September 1927 and officially took custody and changed the name to the Lake Avenue Hospital on October 1, 1927. Doctor Teresi operated the hospital for the next thirty-four years, first as a medical and surgical institution then gradually transitioning to a long-term geriatric health care facility. His long tenure and large loyal private practice would see the hospital through the difficult financial days of the depression and the war years. Doctor Charles Teresi died on December 13, 1961 and the hospital was sold in 1963 and continued to operate as a nursing home until 1971. The building was demolished in 1975.
Another well respected Homeopathic physician in Rochester to establish a private hospital was Merritt E. Graham. Having established himself in Rochester as a well respected physician and a member of the Hahnemann Hospital’s medical staff, Doctor Graham founded the Graham Highland Park Sanatorium in 1899 at 1100 South Avenue. Initially, the hospital specialized in treatment of surgical and chronic diseases but in 1904 expanded to include the Maternity wards. Doctor Graham’s untimely death in August 1905 led to the hospital being taken over by his son, Doctor Cordon T. Graham until its eventual closing in 1918. - Bob Dickson
In the 19th Century, Rochester became a leading center in Homeopathic medicine. The origins of the Rochester Homeopathic Hospital, (later becoming the Genesee Hospital), the Hahnemann Hospital, (which became the Highland Hospital), and private hospitals Lee Private Hospital and the Graham Highland Park Sanitorium and Maternity Hospital are the focus of this second essay.
The Newark Wayne Community Hospital has its origins in the rich history of Wayne County Medicine. In this last chapter, Myers Hospital, Lyons Community Hospital, Wolcott Hospital, Edward J. Barber Hospital in Lyons and the Newark Hospital are chronicled.
This is the last in a series of articles on the history of Hospitals in the Rochester area. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century, western New York was relatively uninhabited but with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, waves of migrating settlers streamed into western New York. Small communities grew out of the wilderness as settlers traveled west in search of land and economic prosperity. Wayne County was established on April 11, 1823 from portions of Seneca and Ontario Counties. With the rise in population, the need for medical practitioners attracted many established physicians from outside the region to settle in the new county.
The history of health care in the county can be traced back to these early physicians and be best described as a family affair. The origins of the hospitals in Wayne County are tied to the history of six individual families of physicians in whose devotion to their patients and service to their communities created the Lyons Hospital, E.J. Barber Hospital, Wolcott Hospital, Myers hospital and Newark Hospital.
The first hospital to open in Wayne County was the Shuler Hospital in Lyons, N.Y. in November 1899. Dr. Charles H. Towlerton, M.D. was a native of Butler Township and worked in partnership with Mrs. Phillip Shuler to establish the hospital. The property was owned and the hospital was managed by Mrs. Shuler with Dr. Towlerton overseeing the medical care.
After a few years, Dr. Towlerton purchased a home on Broad Street and after renovation opened the Lyons Hospital in 1905. He would manage the hospital until his death on September 14, 1923. The doctor’s son, Dr. Fletcher J. Towlerton joined in partnership with Dr. Rueben S. Simpson and formed Towlerton-Simpson, Inc. and purchased the hospital. The hospital continued to thrive into the 1930s. Suddenly, in 1933, Dr. Fletcher Towlerton died at age 38 due to complications following surgery at the renowned Cleveland Clinic.
The hospital continued under Dr. Simpson’s leadership until 1948, when he suffered a permanently incapacitating stroke. Doctor Towlerton’s and Simpson’s wives oversaw the operation of the hospital until 1951 when a group of eight local physicians purchased the institution and renamed it the Lyons Community Hospital. The dream of Dr. Charles Towlerton continued to serve the community until July 1973 when the New York State Department of Health ordered the hospital closed for safety and construction violations. During this time period in Lyons another hospital opened and together both hospitals worked closely to serve the citizens of Lyons and the surrounding communities.
Dr. John C. Carmer, M.D. was the youngest child of a well-respected Lyons physician named Myron E. Carmer, M.D. The young doctor was undoubtedly influenced by his father’s example of a career in medicine. After graduating from Cornell Medical College in 1910 and establishing his practice in Lyons, Dr. John Carmer began plans to establish his own hospital. Named in honor of a childhood friend who invested in the new hospital, the Edward J. Barber Hospital opened on September 1, 1917. Initially outfitted with 10 beds, an expansion in 1932 increased the bed space to 26.
The third generation of the Carmer family to follow into a career in medicine was John’s son, Myron E. Carmer, II. He joined the hospital staff in 1947 and continued his father’s work upon the elder’s death in 1961. Over the years, the hospital continued to modernize and in 1957 a new wing was added accommodating new operating, recovery, and sterilization rooms. The 1960s and 1970s brought progressive change to the health care industry. Legislative mandates and rising costs forced many smaller institutions to close or consolidate. Although Lyons Community and Barbers hospital had joined together financially in September 1964, the challenges were too great and on November 1, 1973, the Edward J. Barber Hospital closed after fifty-six years. The story of the hospital that served Wayne County the longest begins in 1823, the year the county was formed.
On March 27, 1823, Levi M. Gaylord was born to Dr. Levi and Dottie Merriman Gaylord. His father, Dr. Gaylord was one of the early physicians to settle in Sodus, N.Y. Young Levi followed his father’s example in a career in medicine. He graduated from the Geneva Medical College in 1845 and opened his practice in Sodus in 1848. Although none of his children would follow in his footsteps, Dr. Levi M. Gaylord’s legacy became a local school boy who was fascinated with medicine and became his student. John F. Myers knew he wanted to be a physician from an early age. He spent his free time at Dr. Gaylord’s office asking questions and after completing his local schooling, he enrolled then graduated from Columbia University Physicians and Surgeons College in 1887. He returned to Sodus that same year and opened his practice not far from Dr. Gaylord’s residence and office. Although Dr. Gaylord died three years later in 1890, his vision of a community hospital was passed on the Dr. Myers. Over the next decade, Dr. Myers purchased Dr. Gaylord’s former residence and medical office and began renovations on what would become the Myers Hospital. It opened in 1900 and became only hospital on Ridge Road between Rochester and Oswego. The hospital operated with 15 beds and a staff of two nurses a separate wing and new patient treatment rooms were added in 1924. In July of that same year, Dr. Myers son, F. Linwood Myers, M.D. joined the hospital staff.
Both doctors would enjoy long and well-respected careers as well as be recognized for their community service. Dr. John Myers would succumb to advanced age and illness on Christmas day 1942 at the age of 81. Dr. F. Linwood Myers continued his father’s work managing the institution until 1955, when local communities donated funds to purchase the hospital and convert it into a community owned institution named the Myers Community Hospital. Dr. Myers retired in 1960 but continued to see a few patients until his death on April 12, 1973.
Myers Community Hospital continued to grow and in 1998 joined in partnership with the Newark-Wayne Community Hospital to form a non-profit organization ViaHealth of Wayne. As ViaHealth of Wayne, both hospitals became affiliated with Rochester General Hospital and Myers Community Hospital continued to serve Northern Wayne County until it was closed in 2002. The hospital that, in whose humble origins, would nourish the creation of Newark Wayne Community Hospital was a result of the work of a father and son medical partnership.
The original Newark hospital opened in February 1921. It was the dream of doctors George D. York, M.D. and his son Edwin W. York, M.D. The elder Dr. York began his practice in Huron, N.Y. in 1881 after graduating from the university of Buffalo medical college in 1877. He quickly established himself in his profession and community and during his career he served as the county coroner and as president of the county medical society. Moving to Newark in 1898, Dr. York became aware of the community’s desire for a hospital. His son, Edwin W. York was born in 1892. After completing his medical education at Bellevue Medical College in 1917, he was offered a commission in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. Dr. York returned to Newark after his military service and completed his internship at the Rochester General Hospital. Joining his father in practice they soon developed plans for a hospital in Newark.
A private residence on the corner of Mason and West Miller Streets was purchased and after renovations, the Newark hospital was opened on February 1, 1921. The hospital was under the management of Dr. Edwin York and its initial capacity of five beds soon was expanded. The elder doctor, George York, died suddenly on December 21, 1923 after collapsing while addressing the senior class of the Newark High School. The hospital steadily progressed until tragically in February 1931, Dr. Edwin W. York died leaving the hospital in a state of uncertainty.
Two years later, two area physicians joined together to rescue the institution from closure by purchasing and re-opening Newark Hospital. Charles W. Webb, M.D., formally of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, and Dr. John C. Carmer of Lyons became the benefactors of the hospital. Dr. Webb managed the hospital while Dr. Carmer consulted from his hospital in Lyons. In 1936, a three story addition was added on the east side of the hospital in addition to periodic upgrades of material and equipment.
Dr. Charles Webb’s death on July 6, 1949 prompted Dr. Carmer to solicit recommendations from the community on the future of the hospital. The president of the Newark Chamber of Commerce requested a committee be formed to discuss the feasibility of constructing a modern health care facility in the community. Fourteen local physicians purchased the hospital on July 28, 1953 and renamed it the “Doctors’ Hospital”. The project to build a modern hospital was completed on April 3, 1957 when the Newark Wayne Community hospital opened in Newark. This hospital continues to serve the community as a member of the Rochester General Health System.
The last private hospital to serve Wayne County was organized in Wolcott, N.Y. Established in 1935 by Robert G. Stuck, M.D. and George Pasco, M.D. as the Wolcott Clinic, this institution on Lake Avenue steadfastly served the community for the next 31 years.
Dr. Robert G. Stuck was born in Savannah, N.Y. on December 5, 1898. After attending local schools and service in the U.S. Army during the First World War, he enrolled at Syracuse University and completed his medical degree in 1924. The following year he established his private practice in Wolcott and over the next decade created a thriving practice. Dr. George Pasco came from a well-respected family and who was the grandson of a well-known and long-time physician, Ferdinand M. Pasco, M.D (1839-1892). Shortly After graduating from Syracuse University Medical College in 1933, Dr. Pasco returned to the community and joined with Dr. Stuck in the venture to establish a local medical clinic.
The clinic steadily grew with the community. A new wing was added in 1949 and the name was changed to the Wolcott Hospital to reflect its wider scope of services. The hospital worked in partnership with the other county hospitals due to the close knit community of physicians and patients. Dr. Pasco’s death in 1953 after a long illness, left a void that was filled in 1957 when Dr. Stuck’s son, Robert G. Stuck Jr., M.D., joined the hospital staff. He had worked with his father only a short time when on September 24, 1958, hospital founder Dr. Robert G. Stuck died at age 60.
The younger Dr. Stuck would carry on as the hospital head until 1959 when Howard C. Hoople, M.D. joined the hospital. The creation of Medicare and Medicaid with the enacting of the Social Security Act of 1965, created challenges to all medical institutions, especially smaller ones. The rising cost of medical technology and patient care and state and federal legislative mandates forced smaller hospitals to either restructure into non-for profit organizations or to close.
The Cato Citizen reported on October 5, 1967 that “rigid rules and regulations of the Medicare program, especially the ‘fireproof’ building requirements” force the hospital closed and no more patients were admitted after July 1, 1966. Dr. Robert Stuck left the area to pursue advanced surgical studies and Dr. Hoople continued to practice in Wolcott until his retirement.
From the earliest days of the nineteenth-century, Wayne County has been served by a collection of medical families in whose dedication and skill have created the medical institutions that served the communities up to the present. Although only one hospital remains in the county, the legacy of all the hospitals and their physicians will remain to inspire future generations to community service. - Bob Dickson
Special thanks to the Office of the Wayne County Historian and the Augustus L. and Jennie D. Hoffman Foundation for research assistance.