PROVIDENCE HOSPITAL : A CELEBRATED HISTORY OF SERVICE

In 1861 the Nation's Capital to which Abraham Lincoln came as President was crude and unfinished, lacking many of the basic services necessary for a growing city. There was only one general hospital in the district to care for the more than 75,000 residents and transients. The coming Civil War soon created an urgent need for additional hospital services.

As the nation teetered on the brink of conflict, a Washington physician named Joseph Toner petitioned the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg , Maryland , to come build a hospital in the Capitol City . Four Catholic sisters soon arrived to establish Providence Hospital in a renovated mansion on 2nd and D Streets, Southeast.

The Hospital had been in operation only six weeks when the first Battle of Bull Run was fought on July 21, 1861. The casualties from this battle were brought back to Washington on flatbed cars and steamers through the ports of Alexandria and Georgetown . Capitol Hill became known as "bloody hill" as trains of cumbersome, four-horse wagons carried the wounded to makeshift tent hospitals spread from the grounds of the Capitol to the square surrounding Providence .

The Daughters of Charity, dressed in their distinctive winged comets, frequently ventured from the hospital gates to attend to the sick among the tents.

By the winter of 1862, the government had created numerous military hospitals, thereby enabling Providence to care primarily for the civilian population. Providence was the only medical facility not taken over by the military during the Civil War, and the only private hospital that has remained in continuous operation since that time.

In 1862, Congress appropriated $6,000 to the Hospital "for the support, care, and medical treatment of ... transient paupers, medical and surgical patients." This modest sum provided the main financial support for the new hospital.

Two years later, Providence Hospital was granted a charter by Congress that was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Further appropriations provided the necessary funds to complete the building's west wing in 1872.

The building of additional facilities gradually expanded to cover the entire square of 2nd and D Streets, Southeast. In 1898, the Hospital added a contagious ward that was used until 1931, when the new Gallinger Hospital opened. Providence also provided alcoholism treatment in the "topers ward." The Sisters who supervised this ward were well respected by the influential Washingtonians who were treated under their care. Later, when the Hospital needed funds, these same individuals came forward to offer their support. The formal dedication of the completed hospital was held in 1904, with a cast that included James Cardinal Gibbons, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon, and Surgeon General George Sternberg.

Fifty years later, the Hospital moved to its present location in Northeast Washington, DC, where Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle and Speaker of the House John McCormack helped dedicate the new building on March 25, 1956.

Today, over 145 years since its humble beginning, Providence Hospital celebrates a rich tradition of meeting the health needs of the Washington area.